Only hours after his Green Bay Packers finished off their sixth consecutive win with a resounding 45-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams, GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman and his coaching staff was back in the office getting to work on a short week of preparation for Sunday's upcoming game at the Philadelphia Eagles.
With the players enjoying their customary Tuesday off-day, Sherman ran through a brief list of injuries coming out of the Monday night game.
Najeh Davenport, who ran through the St. Louis defense for a career-best 178 yards and a touchdown, bruised his ribs on the third play of the game but played on and bruised the Rams defense the rest of the night.
The only other ding of any significance mentioned by Sherman was a sprained ankle incurred by wide receiver Robert Ferguson. The coach expects both players to be well enough to play their full roles Sunday in Philly.
Sherman did report that Ahman Green, who was sidelined for the St. Louis game with a rib injury of his own, will return to practice Wednesday for the first time since leaving the field in the first half of the win at Houston nine days ago.
The Packers will be looking to boast their potent one-two punch of Green and Davenport for the first time since early in the Nov. 7 win over Minnesota, which saw Davenport go down with a hamstring ailment.
Martin's Season Finished
One Packer player who was in for a workout Tuesday was injured tight end David Martin. The fourth-year player has missed each of the last two contests since hurting his knee in the Minnesota game.
Sherman and the medical staff worked out the former Tennessee Volunteer and came to the conclusion that he would have to be placed on injured reserve, ending his season.
"I wanted to wait and give him a couple of weeks and see if he was going to come around," Sherman said. "We worked him out this morning and visited with the doctor and the prognosis was not very good that he would be available to us this season."
With a vacant space on the roster, the Packers signed 320-pound defensive tackle Colin Cole from the practice squad to the 53-man active list Tuesday. Sherman has liked what he's seen in practice from the sizable lineman and was looking to add protection at the nose tackle position.
"He's done a really nice job in regard to practices," said the head coach. "He's a stout run defender. We really struggle blocking him in practice. He's done a nice job, and I think he has a very good upside in regard to being a nose guard in this league and particularly hopefully with us.
"With our situation of James Lee coming off of a scope and Grady Jackson not being 100% healthy, I just wanted to make sure I can protect myself down the stretch run here at that position, and he gives us added depth that we need."
Diggs Willing His Way To Making Plays
Through 11 games, linebacker Na'il Diggs is just two tackles behind Nick Barnett for the team-lead with 99 tackles on the season. Diggs enjoyed another fine effort Monday night, spending much of the game the St. Louis backfield.
Three of his five tackles were recorded on solo stops behind the line of scrimmage. Sherman said Tuesday that he believes Diggs' success can be attributed to the fact that he's comfortable in his second season as the 'Will' linebacker spot and that he's experiencing something that's unusual to him at this point of the season - a clean bill of health.
"He's been very decisive, downhill, and aggressive," said Sherman, describing the play of the five-year veteran. "He's been explosive, he's a good, sound tackler - he's just playing good football. I think people forget that he just moved to the 'Will' linebacker position last year when I moved everybody around and he's coming into his own this season.
"For the first time, he's really healthy. He's always been banged up or beat up this time of year, and now he's fairly healthy and that's an exciting thing for him. He doesn't have shoulders or ankles or knees - he's ready to roll, and that's exciting."
