EARTH CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs and former Rams coach Dick Vermeil will be in St. Louis on Friday night for the final preseason game for both teams. A matchup of quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Trent Green won't happen.
In proclaiming his top quarterback ready for the start of the season Sept. 9 in Philadelphia, Rams coach Mike Martz said Sunday that Warner will not play against the Chiefs.
In the first half of the team's 13-10 overtime loss to the San Diego Chargers on Saturday night, Warner was 12-of-19 for 147 yards and a touchdown.
"Kurt's not going to play," Martz said. "You can take that one to the bank. He's really where he needs to be to start the season. I wanted him to be ready by this past game. Looking at him on tape he was just outstanding. He's ready to play, so why expose him at this point?"
Warner replaced Green two years ago when Green sustained a major knee injury in a preseason game against the Chargers. Warner went on to lead the Rams to the Super Bowl, and Green was traded to the Chiefs last April.
Saturday night's game in San Diego was the fifth time in seven seasons the Rams and Chargers have met in the preseason. The latest installment saw some bad blood boil.
San Diego linebacker Junior Seau hit running back Marshall Faulk out of bounds, and Rams tackle Orlando Pace went after Seau. Both received personal foul penalties.
"I was pleased that he did that," Martz said of Pace's reaction. "You have to protect your guys. That's a flagrant, flagrant foul by them. It looked to me that it was a real malicious act on tape. We've had that happen before with these guys two years ago. It really upset me and upset Orlando, too.
"It's irritating in the preseason to have those kind of things happen. I'm disappointed that they feel that's necessary."
Martz stopped short of saying the Rams would consider ending the preseason series with the Chargers.
"I don't know," he said. "It was just that one incident, but it just takes one incident. I don't want to get into all that."
Martz said he was impressed with the performance of running back Trung Canidate, who rushed 14 times for 71 yards and caught three passes for 20 yards in his first action since injuring his knee against Miami on Aug. 6.
"He was exceptional in his run reads, making guys miss and running through tacklers," Martz said. "And just his sense of urgency in how he played this game. I'm very pleased he came out of this game in one piece. It's a great start for him."
Besides Canidate, the Rams came out of the game in relatively good health. Safety Adam Archuleta injured his shoulder and has a sore hamstring, as does linebacker London Fletcher. Both will be held out of practice for a few days.
"This is a week where we will take a final look at a lot of guys and play a lot of guys," Martz said. "Our starters won't be in (against Kansas City) too long."
Martz said the Rams plan to cut their roster to 65 on Monday, one day ahead of the league-mandated cutdown. Currently, the Rams have 78 players on their roster, including two — linebacker Scott Zimmerman and cornerback Chris Cummings — that have NFL Europe roster exemptions until the final cut Sept. 2.