With quarterback Dalton Sneed and safety Dillion Winfrey back, the Rattlers should be near full strength for the first time since the opener for Saturday's home matchup against defending Indoor Football League champion Bay Area Panthers.
Those are two key pieces, who were missing on March 31 when the Rattlers (4-3) lost at Bay Area (6-1), 47-41.
Sneed got hurt in the first half of the season opener, a win over the Northern Arizona Wranglers. He missed the next four games, before returning to lead the Rattlers (4-3) to a 55-35 win over the Jacksonville Sharks on April 28.
He missed last week's 38-32 win at Tucson due to a setback in practice that week.
Winfrey, a former IFL Defensive Player of the Year, has been out since suffering an injury early in a March 24 loss to the 7-0 Vegas Knight Hawks.
Both are back for Saturday's 6:05 p.m., rematch with Bay Area at Desert Diamond Arena, coach Kevin Guy said.
Sneed, who led Bay Area to the IFL title last year, earning the game's MVP honors, missed last week's win at Tucson after suffering an injury in practice. He dressed for the 38-32 win as Garrett Kettle was quarterback in a game that saw the Rattlers defense step up with six stops.
Having both players back are key for a Rattlers team looking for their second win against a team with a winning record. NAZ, which the Rattlers beat in the opener, is 4-3. Tucson, Jacksonville and Iowa, all teams the Rattlers have beaten, are a combined 4-16.
"We're starting to get healthy little by little," coach Kevin Guy said. "Dalton should be ready to go. Winfrey should be ready to go. They've been working hard. We've been working hard with the medical staff with the team to get these guys ready to go.
"Injuries are part of the game. I'm proud of the team, how we fought through it. I think we're better at other positions because we've got more depth now. We'll see how it goes."
This is the first step towards showing the rest of the IFL that the Rattlers aren't going to settle for being a middle-tier team in the league this year. Beating Bay Area, which is led by coach Rob Keefe (a Guy nemesis), would help the Rattlers get back on track, after winning their last three games against bottom-fodder teams.
"We haven't really beat a good team yet," Guy said. "A lot of that has been because of the inconsistency of the roster and the lineup. But I think once we get healthy, we're as good as anybody in this league. We're just waiting on getting everybody back in the lineup. We should be ready this week."
Two of the Rattlers' losses came on the last play of the game against Vegas and Bay Area, arguably the top two teams in the league.
Winfrey provides stability and experience to the secondary.
"I feel amazing, and I'm ready to get out there and go play with these guys," Winfrey said. "Just communicating, get guys lined up and making teams earn it. Just not giving up 14 to 21 points off of a lack of communication and not being where we're supposed to be."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
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