TEMPE, Ariz. — After starting the week with a 0% chance of playing this weekend, Arizona Cardinals safety man Budda Baker returned to practice Friday and was later scheduled for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams as classified as questionable.
Coach Kliff Kingsbury said Friday he was told Baker, who suffered more of his right ankle in last weekend’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks, was unable to play earlier in the week. Baker did not train this week through Friday.
“We’ll see how he develops over the next few days,” Kingsbury said. “But I mean, he’s a special person and he wanted to be out there today.”
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was also ruled questionable against the Rams and will be a game decider, Kingsbury said. Murray injured a hamstring against the Seahawks and has been limited for the past two days.
“We want to see how he moves and make sure he can do what he can do when we get him out there,” Kingsbury said.
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Murray was able to throw and go through his drops during practice, Kingsbury said, but the trainer will want to see if Murray can take off and run without problems. If Murray needs to stay in the bag, he can do that, Kingsbury said.
“Obviously if he has to walk around, he has that ability, but he can do it in a variety of ways,” Kingsbury said.
“We don’t want him to feel any pressure not to run or not play his game to some extent and so we’re going to make sure he’s completely comfortable when we put him on the pitch on Sunday and we me won’t know until we get out there and let him roam around on game day.”
The status of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is also in question for Sunday because he is still on concussion protocol, will not affect the Cardinals’ approach to Murray, Kingsbury said.
The Cardinals will also monitor cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., who missed practice this week with a back injury but is still ruled questionable, Kingsbury said.
When it comes to Baker, who missed two of the three days of training last week with an ankle injury, the Cardinals will be careful not to push him back. Kingsbury hasn’t seen many players play with the kind of “ruthless dedication” Baker plays with.
“We want to make sure we feel like they can play at or close to 100 percent in his case and not continue to hurt him, which could keep him out for a long time,” Kingsbury said. “So we’re going to be really smart [the] next few days and see how it goes.”