It's kind of a depressing morning. Once again, pundits are relegating the Rams to the basement and even the most optimistic fans are starting to wonder if this might be another season in the wilderness.

Me, I think they can do better. I won't assume anything, though, until I see it on the field. Not anymore.

Let's start with the 2,000 lbs gorilla in the room, the Steven Jackson holdout. No news is bad news in this case. Linehan's positive assessment reported this weekend in reaction to "some" talks between the two parties turns out to have been a little too optimistic. Jim Thomas at the PD is reporting that those talks consisted of a breif phone call on Friday. Now the coach is expressing concerns about Jackson's readiness for the start of the regular season.Swell.

Ending this ridiculous situation with Jackson would do wonders for the fans. Admit it, you'd feel much better about where things are headed if Jackson had a Rams uni on right now. And I'll bet the starting offense would have had a TD Saturday night too. Maybe it's just Monday morning, but I'm frustrated with this thing to point of wishing the Rams would have traded him to Dallas, when the rumors surfaced prior to the draft, for draft picks and a DE. Then call it a rebuild.

To make the day even brighter, there's some injury news to discuss. The Rams lost linemen Setterstrom and Gorin for the season this weekend. Gorin was a fringe player, brought in as a free agent when last fall when the Rams linemen started dropping like flys. He was questionable to make the final cut anyway, and it's not like he was a difference maker, see 2007 for proof of  that. I'd be much more concerned about our OT depth had Goldberg gone down. Losing Setterstrom does hurt. He's not a starter, but was considered for the role heading into camp. That, obviously, impacts our depth at guard. However, with John Greco, who's looked great at G this month, and Nick Leckey or Romberg able to transfer their solid work at C over one spot, and Roy Schuening, the Rams still have some solid, if unexperienced depth at that position. I'd rather have rookies learnign the ropes at G than OT; Setterstrom proved himself to be just fine filling in as a rookie G in 2006. Setterstrom, however, has to be wondering about his future in pro football right now.

Oh, but the injuries don't stop there. David Vobora, in the race for a LB spot and a special teams role, sprained his ankle and will miss the rest of the preseason, probably.

AND Brian Leonard will likely miss the rest of August's action as well with a sprained shoulder. While we're on Leonard, let me ask you a question. Maybe I'm just feeling nasty this morning, but I can't help but think, seeing this team play, that we could have done much, much better with our second round pick in 2007, getting player to address more important needs. Depending on the position and the player, they'd likely be having an impact this season, as opposed to reminding us just how much we need Steven Jackson in uniform to compete. Maybe we could have drafted a quarterback.