Little out for season; Fry gets promoted

Pro Bowl News

Leonard Little's season is officially over. In a sense, Dustin Fry's is just beginning.

As expected, the Rams placed Little on the injured reserve list Tuesday. The Pro Bowl defensive end will undergo surgery within the next week to repair a torn ligament in his left big toe.

Rookie offensive lineman Fry was promoted from the practice squad to Little's spot on the active roster. Fry, a fifth-round draft pick from Clemson, was released in the final roster cutdown Sept. 1 and has spent the regular season on the Rams' practice squad.

Fry's promotion is more than a ceremonial gesture. With guard Richie Incognito undergoing knee surgery Tuesday, the Rams are paper-thin on the interior of the offensive line. It may not be this week against New Orleans, but Fry could get pressed into service soon.

Fry didn't look ready to play in the NFL during training camp and the preseason, but coach Scott Linehan said Fry has progressed since then, to the point where he earned the promotion to the 53-man roster.

"He's gotten a lot stronger in the weight room," Linehan said. "We feel he's probably a guard. He'll be a lot more of a physical presence at guard than what we've got right now."

With Incognito out indefinitely, the Rams' options are limited on the interior of the line. Milford Brown will continue to start at left guard. Unless Fry, who is 6 feet 3, 314 pounds, is thrown into the fray, that leaves the Rams with some combination of Andy McCollum, Brett Romberg and Nick Leckey with the starting unit at center and right guard. Leckey and Romberg are about 25 pounds lighter than Fry; McCollum is about 15 pounds lighter.

And there's no guarantee that Romberg, who missed the Cleveland game with an ankle injury, will be able to play this week in New Orleans. The Rams are still a couple of weeks away from re-signing Todd Steussie to the active roster. Under terms of his injury settlement following a foot injury in the preseason finale against Kansas City, Steussie isn't eligible to return to the Rams until the week of the Seattle game (Nov. 25). If ready to go, Steussie could be plugged into the lineup immediately at right tackle or right guard.

The Rams are awaiting results on Incognito's knee surgery, which was performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., before deciding whether to add him to the injured-reserve list. If Incognito ends up on IR, the club might promote defensive end Eric Moore from the practice squad to the active roster.

For now, Linehan felt the team needed help on the offensive line more than the defensive line — hence the promotion of Fry.

Victor Adeyanju replaces Little in the starting lineup at left defensive end. Adeyanju, a second-year player from Indiana, has 17 tackles, four quarterback hurries and one fumble recovery this season. He is a solid run defender and a high-motor player but hasn't brought much to the table as a pass rusher. Trevor Johnson, who has eight tackles and one sack, moves up on the depth chart to become the third end, spelling Adeyanju and starting right end James Hall.

The Rams had two defensive ends in Tuesday for visits, street free agents Antwan Applewhite and C.J. Ah You. The Rams might consider adding one of them to the practice squad should Moore get promoted to the 53-man roster.

Applewhite, 6-3, 250, had seven sacks in college last season at San Diego State, turned pro a year early and was signed last May as an undrafted free agent by the San Diego Chargers. Ah You, 6-4, 274, was a seventh-round pick by the Buffalo Bills out of Oklahoma, where he had 10½ sacks over the '05 and '06 seasons with the Sooners.