THOUSAND OAKS – Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp (ankle) will play on Sunday at the Arizona Cardinals, head coach Sean McVay said on Friday.
Kupp sprained the ankle in the first half of last weekend’s win over the Seattle Seahawks, missing the rest of the game with the injury. On Monday, McVay said there was optimism that Kupp would not have to miss a game, and that should come to fruition this weekend.
Kupp did not want to miss any time at all, on Friday saying that he lobbied to reenter the game against the Seahawks. But the training staff recommended that he not play in the second half.
“I wanted to give it a shot,” Kupp said. “But at the end of the day, you got to trust the training staff. … I was pushing to get back out there but it wasn’t the best option for me.”
Kupp, 30, suffered a high ankle sprain on the same ankle last season, an injury that ended his season and required tightrope surgery to repair. Pair that with the hamstring pull that kept him out of the first four games of this season, and it’s been a tumultuous period in the former All-Pro’s career.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Kupp said. “It’s unfortunately part of the game. You play enough snaps and you’re going to get hurt. Hopefully I’ve done enough over the last year and a half to buy myself some time moving forward.”
After not practicing on Wednesday, Kupp was a limited participant on Thursday and returned to a full workload at practice on Friday. It wasn’t until he hit the field on Thursday that he was sure that he would be able to play against the Cardinals.
“You just never really know what it’s going to be like until you go out there and actually play football, put your foot in the ground, make some cuts, things like that,” Kupp said. “So being able to go out there and go full speed, competitively, there’s nothing you can do treatment-wise to see how you’re going to react to that. So it was good to go out there and come out of there feeling like there’s optimism.”
“I thought he looked good yesterday,” McVay added prior to the Friday practice. “We were a little bit limited in regards to exactly what we were doing. … His feedback and just looking at it from afar, it seems like he’s feeling pretty good.”
Kupp said he’s still not at 100% health, though he added that few players are 10 games into the season. But as he returns to action, one advantage is that the field at State Farm Stadium is grass, not artificial turf.
“It’s much better being on grass,” Kupp said. “As a receiver, having run as many routes as long as I have, on turf and on grass, it’s significantly better on grass.”
In six games this season, Kupp has caught 24 passes for 375 yards and one touchdown.
Briefly
Rams safety Quentin Lake (hamstring) was ruled out for Sunday’s game. The only other Ram with an injury designation is receiver Ben Skowronek, who is questionable with a hip injury after being limited at practice all week.