Rams will test Shaun Hill, but Austin Davis likely to start at QB

Here’s what we know for sure about the St. Louis Rams QB situation: Sam Bradford will not be starting Sunday against the Buccaneers.

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We are fairly certain that the man behind center for St. Louis will be Austin Davis, but the Rams would like for Shaun Hill to start instead, which is why they will reportedly test Hill before the game.

Adam Schefter’s tweet says “shoulder” for Hill but unless the veteran QB has developed a new problem in the last 48 hours, his injury is still a quad.

Hill hurt his quad at some point during last weekend’s thrashing at the hands of the Vikings, and sat out the second half while Austin Davis got thrown around like a rag doll by Mike Zimmer’s defense.

Davis proved nothing in that game except that he’s probably not ready for the NFL. Hill may not be anything special but at least he has experience and at least the offense looked semi-competent when he was in there.

The Rams know that with Davis on the field instead of Hill, their chance of winning goes from marginal to slim-to-none, so they’ll give Hill every chance to get out there.

Then again, the way that offensive line looked last week, maybe it would be better not to put the completely immobile Hill on the field right now. Perhaps, for the time being, it’s better to rest Hill and let Davis take the hammering.

Unfortunately you only get 16 games in the NFL, and now it’s down to 15. With each game that ticks off, the urgency to win becomes greater, and the incentive to push it with an injured player goes up as well.