St. Louis Rams Training Camp: Hard Truths About Soft Tissues

Any mention of injuries and players sitting out conjures up frightening memories for the St. Louis Rams. After all, no team has been hit harder in recent years than the Rams. In 2011 alone the team 110 adjusted games lost, according to Football Outsiders, a new high since FO has been keeping stats. Through nearly a week of training camp, the Rams have managed to avoid disastrous losses, but the so-called soft tissue injuries are starting to pile up.

Danario Alexander, Todd Anderson, Tim Barnes, Kendric Burney, Josh Gordy and Darian Stewart all missed the team portion of Friday's practice with soft tissue injuries, hamstrings for the most part. If that list seems lengthy to you, it might have some to do with Jeff Fisher.

Early read on Jeff Fisher is he tries to be proactive on soft tissue injuries _ trying to prevent tightness from becoming a pull or tear.

— Jim Thomas (@jthom1) August 4, 2012

Remember all those throwaway lines from players about Fisher being a "player's coach" in interviews since the Rams hired him? Here is a pretty good example of what they mean when they toss out that old chestnut.

The one exception here is Danario Alexander. His injuries never seem to end, and missing time when the Rams receivers are being so closely scrutinized is not going to help him make the roster, especially with Brian Quick making the oft-injured Mizzou product something of a redundancy.

Jerome Murphy is starting to earn the injury prone label as well.

One injury that does not fall into the soft tissue category is Scott Wells' knee. The Rams' new center is still sidelined as he recovers from a spring knee scope. Reviews on the offensive line have hardly been glowing through camp so far, and Wells' absence hurts the unit even more.