Preseason preview: Rams vs. Saints

What promises to be an absolute joke of a full-price NFL game kicks off Friday night in the Dome when part of the Rams play some of the Saints. Rams not expected to play include Sam Bradford (who, to my knowledge, has not missed a single snap in practice), Jake Long, Rodger Saffold, Barrett Jones, Michael Brockers, Kendall Langford, Scott Wells. I assume William Hayes will also miss the game, but with the Rams having only special teams practice Wednesday and canceling a scheduled practice Thursday, it's hard to know what the theoretical injury list would look like. For the Saints, Drew Brees is out with a minor injury and will stay on the Saint sideline, assuming he's even coming to the game. (Joe Flacco and others didn't even come to St. Louis last season when the Ravens were here for the last preseason game.) So, yeah, 67 bucks for the thrilling opportunity to see Shaun Hill duel it out with Luke McCown. I guess both these teams will be happy to get these injuries out of the way now, though.

Another reason this game's going to be pretty uneventful - sure, the Rams have their share of roster battles, but is there a single starting position up for grabs? Maybe Rodney McLeod vs. Maurice Alexander at safety? Every other starting position appears to be set already, which sounds a little odd when your team just went 7-9.

7:00 Central kickoff; the game can be seen on NFL Network nationally or on KTVI (channel 2) locally.

Report of the game will probably be up Saturday afternoon. I'll try to actually use that Tweeter thing to post when it's up in the usual places, including here for now. I'm still figuring out what to do with the website.

* Alumni report:
- Congratulations once again to Aeneas Williams on his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His acceptance speech from last weekend:

- Broadcast news: Will Witherspoon, who has not filed retirement papers with the league to my knowledge, will replace Tony Softli as the sideline reporter on Rams radio broadcasts. Will should be working the sideline Friday night.
- More broadcast news: Ovie Mughelli, a former Pro Bowl fullback who was in the first Fisher era training camp here, is a co-host on 120 Sports.

- Transactions:
--Max Starks, a veteran tackle who played in a game here last year after an injury to Saffold, has signed with the Big Dead;
--Josh Hull was cut by the Patriots but rebounded with the Jagwires. The Jags have also signed Fendi Onobun;
--Once a training camp leg here, Shaun Suisham has signed a 4-year contract extension with Pittsburgh. Suisham made 30 of 32 field goals last season;
--Graham Pocic, a UDFA offensive lineman from last year's Rams camp, signed with the Bears;
--Ryan Lee, also a UDFA offensive lineman from last year's camp, signed with the Browns. The Browns have also put guard John Greco on the non-football injury list. Bad time for that, because Greco's starting job is reportedly very much up for grabs;
--The Chiefs put Rokevious Watkins on non-football injured reserve. Football may actually be giving Watkins a last chance to get himself together. It's up to him now to make the most of it.

-$-