The St. Louis Rams announced that quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a high ankle sprain during Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers. The team’s statement on Twitter stated that Bradford “will be day to day this week but certainly limited in practice this week.”

Bradford’s 2011 season has been a nightmare as the Rams have gone 0-6. After 5 games he only has three TDs against 2 interceptions, and his completion percentage is down from 60% in 2010 to 52.8% this season. The Rams implemented a new offense after losing offensive coordinator Pat Shurmer and his West Coast offense, so Bradford has had to adjust to Josh McDaniels as his new coordinator. McDaniels has had his own problems after two tough years as the head coach in Denver.

A sophomore slump isn’t uncommon for NFL quarterbacks, so Rams fans shouldn’t panic, but Bradford needs to be on the field, and this injury may slow him down for a while.

The Houston Texans confirmed that Mario Williams will be placed on IR and will be out for the rest of the season. Williams injured his pectoral muscle, with many speculating that he suffered a tear. Williams has been a dominant pass rusher for the Texans throughout his career and this year he had five sacks. Williams played defensive end in the 4-3 alignment, but this season he made the move to outside linebacker in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defense. The transition had been going well until the injury.

Coach Gary Kubiak reacted to the news on the team’s official website:

I feel so bad for Mario because man, he’s been such a heck of a player, and what we’re doing to me is really going to blossom his career from now on. I think he had really taken to the position he’s playing. He was improving every day in practice, improving in every game and really enjoying – I think I’ve never seen him so upbeat about what was going on – and to lose him on a freak play, it doesn’t look like much at all.

The Texans can’t seem to catch a break. The team was poised for a breakout season with the Colts floundering in Peyton Manning’s absence, and now they lose their best player on defense.

Carolina fans were probably thrilled to see Cam Newton throw for over 400 yards in week one, but now they get news that linebacker Jon Beason is out for the season with a torn Achilles.

You only have to look at Beason’s contract to see his importance to the team. The team gave him a $20 million signing bonus last month on a $51.3 million, six-year contract.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs lost Eric Berry for the season to add to the misery of their week-one blowout loss, and the block thrown by Stevie Johnson of the Bills is drawing some criticism.

Rumors have been flying around Twitter that Peyton Manning would need more surgery, so the Indianapolis Colts have issued a statement about Manning’s recovery process. Bottom line is that he’ll likely miss the first game as he has suffered some complications and they will be holding him out of practice this week as they try to figure out what is slowing down his recovery.

It wasn’t three days ago that I wrote about the potential concerns that the Ravens had in their secondary heading into the 2010 season. Now it appears that yet another one of their starting corners has suffered an ACL injury.

Domonique Foxworth, whom the Ravens signed to a $27.2 million contract last season, is out for the year after tearing his ACL during Thursday’s practice. The news is devastating considering that both Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb are trying to recover from the same injuries. Neither corner is expected to be 100% by the start of the season.

After signing his lucrative deal in the offseason, Foxworth became a constant target of fans and critics. Truth be told, if you watch the film he wasn’t as bad as people made him out to be, but it’s also true that he never came close to living up to the contract he signed. Furthermore, he seemed to save his worst performances against top opponents like the Colts (twice), Patriots and Bengals.

Assuming they make full recoveries, the Ravens should be able to get by with Webb and Washington as their starters. But given the uncertainty of their injuries and the depth behind them (i.e. Chris Carr, Walt Harris, Travis Fisher, etc.), it’s fair to question why GM Ozzie Newsome didn’t focus on the cornerback position more this offseason.

According to SI.com’s Peter King, Matt Hasselbeck is expected to play this week against the Bears despite suffering a rib injury in Sunday’s loss to the 49ers.

From King’s Twitter page:

Re injuries: Am told Westbrook not bad, should play this week. Ditto Hasselbeck. McNabb? Still very sore. But Vick will only play spot duty.

King also reiterated on NBC last night that McNabb was doubtful to play in Week 3 as he continues to battle a rib injury himself. As King noted, the Eagles will continue to start Kevin Kolb (or get Jeff Garcia ready?) and ease Vick into games in sub packages.

Kolb threw for 391 yards and two touchdowns on 31 of 51 passing, although he did throw three interceptions. I know Andy Reid likes to throw the ball, but it’s probably never a good sign if Kolb is attempting 51 passes. Fortunately for the Eagles, they host Kansas City this Sunday and have their bye in Week 4.

Talk about a great time for the bye.

Washington Redskins’ RB Clinton Portis may miss Sunday night’s game against the Cowboys and could miss more time than that as he suffers from a MCL sprain in his left knee.

The good news? “I had 15 injuries two weeks ago,” Portis said. “Now I’ve only got one.”
The bad news? “Right now I can’t straighten it out,” he said of his left leg. “I just started bending it today. So hopefully by the end of the week. We’ve got five days, so hopefully I’ll be ready.”

Will he play Sunday? Steinberg’s synopsis:

He said the pain increased on Thursday night and Friday, leading to another examination and the sprain diagnosis. He said he thought he could help the team even if he wasn’t the main focal point of the offense merely by being on the field and forcing the Cowboys to account for him, but he also said he wouldn’t put himself out there just for the sake of being out there.

Portis has played at MVP-like status so losing him for any amount of time would put a damper in the Skins’ playoff hopes.

- Chiefs’ RB Larry Johnson is likely to be suspended or inactive for Sunday’s game following an investigation that he recently spat in a woman’s face at a Kansas City nightclub. (ESPN.com)

- Broncos’ CB Champ Bailey will miss 4-6 weeks after suffering a torn groin in Denver’s loss to the Patriots on Monday night. (ESPN.com)

- Tony Romo will not play in the Cowboys’ game this Sunday against Tampa Bay and could be out at least two more weeks with a broke pinkie finger. (Dallas Morning News)

- The Cleveland Browns have suspended Kellen Winslow one game for his rant Monday against GM Phil Savage and coach Romeo Crennel. Winslow questioned the team’s handling of his staph infection. (Rotoworld.com)

- Patriots’ safety Rodney Harrison’s season is over. He tore a quad muscle Monday in New England’s win over Denver and the injury likely will end his 15-year NFL career. (NFL.com)

Here’s a shock (no pun intended): Jeremy Shockey is upset with the team he plays for. Following New Orleans’ 30-7 loss to the Panthers in Week 7, Shockey ripped the Saints for mishandling his groin injury and now he might not play next week against the Chargers in London.

“I feel a spot in my leg that wasn’t there before,” said Shockey, who indicated he was hopeful he only dug up scar tissue and did not suffer more damage.

Shockey was clearly slowed by the injury. Later, after a catch, Shockey had the ball stripped by Julius Peppers and Carolina recovered. It led to the Panthers’ go-ahead touchdown in a rout that left Shockey in a foul mood despite leading the team with five catches for 50 yards.

“I had a fumble that hurt the team. I missed a backside cutoff block,” Shockey said. “That’s on me, 14 points I felt like I gave up today, not because of effort, but just because physically I’m not healthy.”
Shockey said he may have come back too soon from the surgery, and also indicated the Saints erred by misdiagnosing him in training camp.

“I’m worried that this thing could have been taken care of in camp, like it should have been,” said Shockey, who the Saints acquired from the New York Giants in July for two draft picks. “If it wasn’t misdiagnosed in camp like it was there’d have been no problems. … Next time I know. When I get hurt I’ll get three or four opinions besides just the team’s.”

Ah the old, “I take full credit for my mistakes today, but really it was someone else’s fault.”

Shockey didn’t fumble because he was hurt. He fumbled because he wasn’t taking care of the ball and got stripped. Why the Saints were running a screen pass to the tight end in that situation is beyond me, but that’s beside the point. When Shockey was in New York, the Giants mistreated him. When he was traded to New Orleans, everything was great because he was going to get the opportunity to play in Sean Payton’s offense. But now that things haven’t started off so well, he’s got to bitch and blast the team. The Giants have to be laughing right now and breathing a sigh of relief that they don’t have to deal with him anymore.

ESPN.com is reporting that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo could miss up to four weeks because of a broken pinkie finger.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has a broken pinkie on his throwing hand and will be out four weeks, a team source told ESPN’s Michael Smith.

Romo initially was diagnosed with a pinkie sprain in Sunday’s 30-24 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

Veteran quarterback Brad Johnson, the Cowboys’ holder on kicks, is Romo’s backup.

The Cowboys have lost two of their last three games after starting the season 3-0.

For a team that just lost to the Arizona Cardinals, this is crippling for the Cowboys. Their offense is going to look quite different with “Elbow Pads” Johnson in there. That’s not to say that Johnson is going to be a complete waste (he does have plenty of weapons around him), but all of a sudden Dallas looks incredibly vulnerable.

Ouch! The upside is that owners with Tony Romo are probably doing pretty well record-wise, so maybe they can weather the storm for four weeks. Then again, maybe not. Brad Johnson seems like the easiest move to make, though there’s no guarantee that he has enough left in the tank. He’s a vet, however, and he’s walking into an offense with a ton of weapons. Trent Edwards is out there on a few waiver wires and he has nice matchups in Week 7 and Week 9. Matt Cassel has nice matchups the next two weeks but it looked like he’d post big numbers against a shaky Chargers defense and was unable to have any success. Matt Ryan is on bye this week, but looks like a decent start the following three, while Marc Bulger has three nice matchups in the next four games (though he hasn’t shown much of anything this season).