Traning camp headlines 7/30

Morning and afternoon practices today.

* Steven Jackson holdout day 6. Jackson's total potential fine for unexcused absence is now $90,000, enough to pay for two years' tuition and room and board at Harvard. Meanwhile, St. Louis' sports media overwhelmingly, from what I've heard, is on the Rams' side in negotiations, that Jackson ought to have signed the $7 million a year offer already and gotten into camp.

But just as overwhelmingly, they're ignoring Jackson's receiving statistics. They're ignoring the growth of the salary cap when comparing old contracts. They're downgrading Jackson for having fewer total rushing yards and ignoring that he has much fewer carries. It's a little lazy, I think, that they're just all piling on the fans' side because we're mad that a rich football player under contract can get away with violating that contract.

To recap other long posts I've made: yards-per-carry and durability are definitely fair issues to downgrade Jackson for compared to other RBs. I would not say to pay him as much as LaDainian Tomlinson. Except, LT's contract from 2004 is worth a lot more in today's dollars, more like $11 million a year than the $7.5 million he signed for.

Is Steven Jackson 80% the player LaDainian Tomlinson is? I think so. Maybe his market value is more like $9 million a year then.

And I'm sticking to that. I think the Rams are lowballing him.

* Donnie Avery to return kicks, but not for a while now.
Avery is the Rams' first option to return kickoffs right now. This is a good move. Avery's probably the fastest player the Rams have put back there in the St. Louis era. And unlike Chris Johnson, MARTZ, Avery actually has experience at the task, averaging over 28 yards a return his senior year, with a TD return. He has the speed to be very dangerous back there, certainly more than anybody the Rams have put back there recently.

Unfortunately, Avery is now going to be down for a couple of weeks due to what's described as a crack in his pelvic bone. Hard as it may be to believe from its description, this isn't considered a serious injury.

Let's hope Avery heals up nicely. I really like the idea of asking him to return kickoffs.

* Other injuries.
Mark Setterstrom missed time yesterday due to numbness in his left leg. Josh Thompson's torn plantar fascia ended his Ram career with an injury settlement. He has been replaced by 6'3", 315-lb defensive tackle Henry Smith, a rookie free agent from Texas A&M let go by New England last month. Either Smith has grown an inch since draft day, or somebody's lying about his height, which had been listed at 6'2". Chris Draft has been out the last couple of days with a sore lower back

* The under-the-radar injury.
OJ Atogwe hasn't worked much at all in camp due to his hamstrings. Then again, Brian Burwell reported seeing him with a bag of ice on his left knee. What's going on here? It's starting to become worrisome, since Atogwe's one of their best defensive players.

* Single game tickets on sale today.
Come on, Rams Nation; let's try to get a couple of home games on local TV.

The Rams have started using a policy with single-game tickets I totally approve: the Chicago game has been bundled with the Giants game, and the Dallas game has been bundled with the Buffalo game. You have to buy both. Other teams, for sure the Chargers and Big Dead, have employed this policy to keep their stadiums from being overrun by the visiting team's fans, which we all know has been a big problem in the Dome the last couple of years. A determined-enough Bears or Cowboys fan will always be able to find their way in, but I'm glad to see the Rams trying out ways to help us fans of the home team.