It’s a travel day for the Rams as they make their way to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars tomorrow night in one of the most crucial preseason games.

The preseason record means diddly poo (Thank you, Jim Mora Sr.) to most, as it should.  It doesn’t mean jack.  The important aspect of tomorrow night’s game: getting out of Jacksonville without any more injuries.

Along those injury lines the question on everyone’s mind at this point in the preseason is, “How much playing time should the starters get?”  Spags thinks they will see a little more action on the field than the usual fourth preseason game.

Well, we’re talking about a quarter, the first quarter or 15, 20, 23, 25 plays something like that. I don’t like to put a number on it because it will kind of be a ‘feel’ thing during the game. Generally if you feel like they’ve gotten some good work in and it’s 20 plays they’re out. I think it will be a little bit more than a normal fourth preseason game.

One starter who will be limited in his role is LB James Laurinaitis.  He suffered a set back with a pectoral muscle strain and most likely will not see much playing time.  Why risk further injury to your star defensive player?  He’s said to be a game time decision.  Me?  I wouldn’t risk it.

I have Laurinaitis emerging as the Rams defensive star this year so this pec injury could put a damper on things.  His back-up Josh Hull should be seeing more playing time with the first team as a result.

Another potential starter who didn’t even make the trip to Jacksonville is TE Mike Hoomanawanui who has a strained calf muscle.  This makes his chances of making the team very precarious.

The Rams already seems stretched to keep other receivers without having to worry about whether to nurse along player.  But Big Mike is a team favorite so we’ll have to see what they end up doing with him.

Will the age old training camp question of “Who will make up the WR corp?” be answered on Thursday night?  Which guys do the Rams keep?

The shoe-in’s should get the first quarter reps and the rest of the game should be the bubble guys.  This will most likely be their last chance to give the coaches something positive to think about when making those roster cuts.

One WR who wants to leave an impression is Mike Sims-Walker.  But it has nothing to do with making the team because he’s one of those slam dunks. MSW wants to go out there and show the Jaguars what they’re missing – giving them a reason to seriously regret letting him go this off-season.

It’s definitely bittersweet, I still have that, I don’t call it a chip, I call it a crack.  I have a crack on my shoulder. A chip is not big enough for what I got right now.

Look for MSW to make at least one TD to send a message to the Jaguars organization.

The Jaguars are suffering from one thing the Rams don’t have to worry about – the quarterback position. Their starting QB David Garrard is ailing from a sore back and has missed some preseason action.

His rookie back-up Missouri’s own Blaine Gabbert has shown that he’s not quite ready to take the reigns.  Here’s where I insert my obligatory, “Thank goodness for Sam Bradford.” comment.

With the passing game in doubt look for the Jags to get RB Maurice Jones-Drew and their running game (RB Rashad Jennings) into high gear.  MJD, himself, is coming off a season ending injury from last year so we’ll get to see how he’s healed up since.  We’ll just try and forget how he called out Jay Cutler about his MCL when MJD was sitting at home not in the game.  But I digress…

Jacksonville Jaguars 2010 Team Stats

As you can see the Jags were not so hot in the defensive standings.  Pretty much rock bottom in giving up passing yards.  This should make for an interesting game since we have so many WR’s to look at.

The Rams lead the overall preseason series, 2-0 and the overall regular season series, 2-1.

Like I said, the records don’t mean much.  I’m just hoping we come back with no additional injuries.

Today’s the first of several do-or-die days for the lock out.  Judge Susan Nelson will be ruling, most likely against the owners once again, and this case will be coming to St. Louis to be heard in the 8th Circuit Court.  Experts say the hearing could come as early as end of May or the beginning of June.  It just means more waiting and wondering.

Hope we hear some good news.

Hope the Rams are really ready as they say they are if all of a sudden free agency is allowed to start.  We have Billy Devaney’s word on it, right?

1) 101Sports.com: Tony Softli write a quick run down of the record 25 players who will be attending the draft in NYC tomorrow night.  One of our locals, Mizzou’s Blaine Gabbert tweeted he’s already there with his family and has a busy day ahead.  Good luck tomorrow night!

2) Julio should be a Ram!

@SI_PeterKing Peter King