By Nick Wagoner

Senior Writer

With one day to get down to the final 53 on the roster, the Rams released 10 players Friday afternoon.

Those moves leave the Rams with 66 players, meaning they have 13 more cuts before the Saturday deadline. Every team in the league must be down to their final 53 by 3 p.m. St. Louis time Saturday afternoon.

The most recognizable names in the initial wave of cuts are receiver Marques Hagans and safety Jerome Carter.

Hagans came to the Rams in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. The team converted him from quarterback to receiver/returner in hopes of using him in a versatile way. He spent his rookie season on the practice squad before landing on the active roster last year.

Ultimately, though, he was squeezed out by a numbers game at the receiver position and a lack of production in opportunities during the preseason.

“He’s a converted quarterback who has successfully done that in my opinion,” Linehan said. “He has a future playing receiver in this league. He could really develop into one of those guys that can do a lot of things for you.”

Hagans played in four games, making eight catches for 101 yards. He remains eligible for the practice squad and barring another team placing him on the active roster, the Rams would like to bring him back in that role.

Carter was a fourth-round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. In his three seasons in St. Louis, Carter played in 33 games with 63 tackles and two interceptions. Coming out of Florida State, Carter had a reputation as a big hitter but never showed that in his time with the team.

“I think Jerome was slowed by some injuries last year he hurt his foot and this year in training camp with the groin,” Linehan said. “Unfortunately that does not help your ability to perform at the level you expect to perform at. I think that hampered him some.”

Elsewhere on the list, there were no real surprises. Receiver Matt Caddell, tight end Nick Cleaver, cornerbacks Tanard Davis and Cortney Grixby, center Donovan Raiola, linebacker Marcus Riley and defensive tackles Henry Smith and Willie Williams were also waived.

Linehan said the team will wait until Saturday to make the rest of the cuts.

“It gives us a little bit of time,” Linehan said. “We are still evaluating a couple of roster positions.”

AVERY UPDATE: The original prognosis of a sprained right knee for rookie receiver Donnie Avery was confirmed by an MRI on Friday afternoon.

Avery suffered the injury early in Thursday’s game against Kansas City. But Linehan said it was as expected and Avery could return to action this week in time to play against the Eagles.

“We’ll find out how he goes,” Linehan said. “We’ll start progressing his recovery on Monday and see where he’s at. It wasn’t serious. It’s nothing that will require surgery or anything. He had something similar before his season last year before his senior year so he is planning to approach it the same way. He was able to make it to the first game and not miss any time last year and will be pushing himself pretty hard. We are not counting him out at this point.”

For the record, Avery did play in that season opener against Oregon and finished with six catches for 66 yards.  

INJURY UPDATE: The Rams came out of Thursday’s game relatively healthy. Now, the question remains whether they will get some of the players who were already injured back up to speed in time to play against Philadelphia.

Some of those players such as free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe and left tackle Orlando Pace returned to practice earlier this week and are expected to be ready to go.

The players have the weekend off but did some conditioning work Friday and Linehan is confident many will be available in practice next week.

“I think everyone else will progress,” Linehan said. “Some guys look a lot better today. Dante and Drew ran and look like they will be OK so I think we’ll know more as we get into next week. We have a couple of good days of practice Monday and Wednesday to have a pretty good idea of who is going to be ready to go for Sunday.”

One player who remains a concern is cornerback Fakhir Brown. Brown has been on the sidelines with a shoulder injury since the second practice of training camp in Wisconsin. He could get some work in practice this week but his status is uncertain until the team steps on the field Monday.