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St. Louis Rams Activate Chris Long from IR, Release Marshall McFadden

By Patrick Karraker

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The St. Louis Rams made a roster move in advance of Sunday’s matchup against the Oakland Raiders, activating defensive end Chris Long from the injured reserve-designated for return list. To make room on the roster, the team released linebacker Marshall McFadden.

Long is expected to return against Oakland after missing almost the entire regular season to this point. He went down with an ankle injury during the early minutes of the Rams’ season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, and soon after had surgery on the ankle. He was placed on IR-DTR, and he has missed the last 10 games.

While Long’s lack of a thorough rehabilitation process means that he probably won’t be a full-go contributor for the rest of the season, his presence should be valued amongst a Rams defensive line that has obviously been limited by his absence this year. The group fronted by Robert Quinn, which was coined “#SackCity” heading into the season, has just 22 sacks this year, half of which have come from Quinn and rookie defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

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The release of McFadden comes as somewhat of a surprise. The 28-year-old linebacker, who was elevated to the active roster in late October and had dressed for the past five games, has four special teams tackles this year, putting him just behind Chase Reynolds (15) and Daren Bates (5), who lead the team in the category while having played much more than McFadden had.

The Rams obviously were overstocked at linebacker, as they were carrying seven players at the position despite only having used two for much of the past two games. With that said, it seemed more likely that Korey Toomer would be the one to go, as he has dressed just twice and recorded one special teams in tackle in his four weeks on the active roster.

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