Rams Head Coach Scott Linehan
September 19, 2008
(Opening Remarks)
“We don’t have any changes. The official deal though is (WR) (Keenan) Burton and (WR) (Drew) Bennett are out obviously and then we have (G) (Jacob) Bell and (DE) Leonard (Little) as questionable and we’ll make that decision on Sunday.”
(On how G Jacob Bell and DE Leonard Little looked at practice)
“They did some; it’s about the same. These things, like I said yesterday, they just felt pretty good, I think Wednesday felt better yesterday and today probably a little better than that.”
(On if CB Ron Bartell feels better today)
“Yeah, he did all the reps today. He was just real sore yesterday. He had a bruise on his hip.”
(On if CB Ron Bartell was able to avoid collisions today)
“Yeah, no collisions today; he stayed out of (S) O.J.’s (Atogwe) way today.”
(On RB Brian Leonard’s status for Sunday)
“Don’t know yet. Again, the difficult thing for the four tailbacks up on gameday, and I think I said this Monday, is last year we were able to work it because we only had two quarterbacks. That’s why people do that, that’s why we did it. It ended up being a problem for us because we had injuries at quarterback position, so we decided to go with three this year. It affects the tailback depth, it affects the secondary depth, it affects the receiver depth. Right now because of our receiver depth being a little thin it still makes it difficult, but he had his best week since the start of the season. I’ve told him each week it had no bearing on his performance in practice. It’s just we’re the healthiest at that position and we have to play guys based on special teams decisions.”
(On why as a second round pick RB Brian Leonard can’t play on special teams)
“No he plays them. It’s just right now we’ve got, at the same position, we’ve got guys that are playing ahead of him and he’s competing with those guys each week. No, it’s not that he can’t, it’s just right now that’s been the feeling that those other guys are fitting those roles better, but it doesn’t mean he won’t be in there soon.”
(On if RB Brian Leonard has any lingering pain from his shoulder injury from a month ago)
“No, that’s really what pushed him back though. He was not in any teams for two weeks and the other guys were there. His health now has to be what pushes him back in.”