PRO FOOTBALL REPORT : WEEKLY UPDATE : RAMS : Damone Johnson Is Activated

As expected, the Rams activated tight end Damone Johnson on Friday. And in doing so, the team waived their right to use a two-week roster exemption for Johnson and--to make room for him--backup tackle Jeff Mickel. Mickel is a rookie free agent from Eastern Washington.

Johnson ended his holdout Wednesday. In Tampa, where the temperature figures to be in the 90s, with very high humidity, he probably cannot be counted on to play more than 10-15 downs Sunday, and those will probably be during two-tight end sets on running plays.

“I don’t know, I’m just going to play it by ear,” Johnson said Friday. “I don’t even think (the coaches) know.

“It’s going to be pretty hot, so I can’t really say. You know, Tampa Bay is hot and humid, and a lot of things happen to you when it gets hot.

“But it was pretty hot out here all week, and I didn’t get tired.”

Don’t count Coach John Robinson among those who fear that the two-time Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers will run away and hide in this year’s NFC West race.

Robinson said this week that the NFC West race will be decided in the final four or five weeks of the season--especially given the uneven play of the defending champion 49ers through the exhibition season and in their opener.

“We’ve got to stay close going into (the last five games)--to me, that’s still the key,” Robinson said. “I think if the 49ers play like they’re playing now and all through the preseason, they’ll be a 10-6 team, no better than that. And I’m sure they would say the same thing.”

As pleased as the Ram coaches were with the play of rookie Bern Brostek in his emergency role as the starting right guard, they are happy that starting right tackle Jackie Slater is returning to solidify the right side of their offensive line.

With Slater out last week because of a dislocated toe, regular starting right guard Duval Love moved to tackle and Brostek, a center, played guard.

“On our right side, between Duval and Brostek, you came away saying, ‘They played good,’ but there were about seven plays where something went wrong,” Robinson said. “We ran a toss early in the game to Gaston Green, lost two yards, and we had everybody blocked. It was an eight-, 10-, 12-yard gain, except Brostek ignored the linebacker and the linebacker snuck behind him.

“Duval Love would’ve blocked him 10 out of 10 times. Those kinds of things, probably, with Duval and Jackie, we’ll have very little of.”