The theme of this week has been injuries, injuries, injuries.  Sometime later tomorrow or early Saturday we'll have final word on the actual probability of the players below playing.  For now, we at least know how much they practiced the last couple of days.

49ers
C Eric Heitmann - Did not participate in Wednesday or Thursday practice sessions with the shoulder injury suffered Sunday against the Cardinals.

CB Donald Strickland - Did not participate in Wednesday or Thursday practice sessions with a knee injury.

If I was a gambling man (which I tend to be), I'd guess both guys will be listed as questionable and be "game-time decisions."  Hopefully Heitmann is just resting the shoulder and will be fine on Sunday.  The same holds true for Strickland as he is quickly proving to be a very solid option as a 4th cornerback.

If Heitmann could not play, I'd imagine Tony Wragge would play center, David Baas would play right guard and Adam Snyder would play left guard.  That would leave Chilo Rachal as the sole backup at guard.  While you can't keep too many players due to roster restrictions, this goes to show the importance of Tony Wragge's versatility.  They're stuck with a rookie backing up at guard, but considering he's their third option when everybody's healthy you can't really complain too much.

If Donald Strickland couldn't go on Sunday and was deactivated, it'd be a battle between Tarell Brown, Marcus Hudson and Reggie Smith for that extra DB spot.  Smith is probably the first one out of those three as a rookie and it seems like Hudson is a guy they really like, so I'd say Hudson would be active.  We'll see.

Seahawks
WR Bobby Engram - Out - Shoulder (definitely will not play, as opposed to DNP in practice which means he could still play this Sunday).

RB Maurice Morris - Out - Knee (see above)

T Sean Locklear - DNP Practice - Knee

WR Deion Branch - Limited Participation in Practice - Knee - Scoresandodds.com has him down as doubtful and as far as I know he's not playing this Sunday.

LB Lofa Tatupu - Limited Participation in Practice - Knee

CB Marcus Trufant - Fine on Wednesday, but limited participation on Thursday with a hand injury after colliding in practice with Tatupu.  Rotoworld says he appeared fine in the lockerrom, but did have on a protective guard.

DE Baraka Atkins - Full participation in practice in spite of a back injury.

As we've discussed many Seahawks injuries ad nauseum, there's not a whole lot left to say with this injury report.  Tatupu and Trufant will probably go on the injury report as probable, but obviously will be playing.  If they're in the lineup, this defense presents a real tough challenge to the 49ers.  I'd expect a lot of pressure all day long.  This will be a big test of J.T. O'Sullivan's pocket presence and ability to make things happen when chaos is unleashed around him. 

Over at Field Gulls, John Morgan discussed the importance of smart blitzing this weekend.  If the 49ers are going to have success on offense it will take a balanced attack and some very solid pass protection from the offensive line.  The talent is there, it's just a matter of execution.

One thing I often forget to do while posting is assessing what our divisional competition is up to.  Obviously we'll do preview stuff the week of games, but considering we play 6 out of 16 games against 3 teams, it's a good idea to keep an eye on them so we have some idea as to what to expect.  Every team in the NFL has some sort of question mark to address in training camp and it'd be nice to know what that is for the rest of the NFC West.

Arizona Cardinals
The Anquan Boldin situation has been the biggest national story out of Cardinals camp.  However, now it appears as if the Drew Rosenhaus client might be backing down a little bit.  I have to say that whether you like Rosenhaus or not, his clients report to camp even when unhappy.  He worked out an extension for Gore so that certainly makes me a slightly bigger fan. 

Aside from Boldin, the offensive line seems to be turning into a bit of an issue.  Their starting center, Al Johnson, is having issues with his knee.  It seems like going back several years, the Cardinals have never been able to fully address their offensive line issue.  Right now, it might be safe to say that they have the worst offensive line in the division if you factor in starters and depth.  As long as the offensive line lacks depth, I'd imagine Edgerrin James will not get completely on track and Leinart will have his work cut out for him.  James finished with 1,222 rushing yards, but only averaged 3.8 a carr, good for 37th in the league.

St. Louis Rams
So, if Dante Hall is leading the way in becoming your #3 receiver, is that a good or bad thing?  I was surprised to see he's only 29, but it feels like he's been around forever.  He'll get a chance to solidify his #3 role as rookie Donnie Avery has suffered a small stress fracture in his hip.  Avery will apparently miss anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.  That's certainly not the best way for a rookie receiver to make his mark in camp.

In spite of all the injuries, the biggest national story from Rams camp is the Steven Jackson holdout.  If they can come to terms on a deal I don't think the missed time will be too detrimental.  The good news for the Rams is that they have leverage on their side.  According to the recently voided CBA (which applies to this case), "a player shall not receive an Accrued Season for any League Year in which the player is under contract to a Club and in which he failed to report to such Club at least thirty days prior to the first regular season game of that season.”  So that means Jackson has to report to camp a week by next Friday or he loses a year of service time.  No leverage means Jackson will likely blink first.

Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks big news (in my mind) is the signing of former 49er great Bryan Gilmore!  Really, what else needs to be said about that, right?  The Seahawks have some solid, if unsung receivers.  If former Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch can stay healthy they'll be even better.  Of course, can 35 year old Bobby Engram repeat his 94 reception season, 3 more than he had the previous 2 seasons combined?

Elsewhere, the Seahawks are excited about the performance of rookie defensive tackle Red Bryant, a fourth round pick.  He had some character issues coming out of school which seemed to contribute a little to his drop.

Now that we've got a Cardinals blogger, the NFC West is complete at SB Nation.  We're looking for ways to cross-blog and keep everybody completely informed on the division.  If you have any suggestions for interaction between the blogs, please let me know.

Over at ESPN's NFC West blog, Mike Sando took a look at some of the acrimonious contract situations in the division.  The division has signed all of their 2008 draft picks, but that doesn't meant people don't want to get P-A-I-D. 

The Rams are dealing with a Pro Bowl holdout in Steven Jackson.  While Anquan Boldin has reported to Cardinals camp, he is not planning on sticking around when his contract expires.  The Seahawks have an unhappy Bobby Engram, not something you want out of your star receiver.

And the 49ers during all of this?  Well, Arnaz Battle missed several days of practice during the OTAs.  No official word was ever given, but most people believe it was dissatisfaction with having his #2 job handed to Bryant Johnson.  You never want your players unhappy, but it's better if it's the potential #3 receiver, as opposed to say, Patrick Willis or Joe Staley.

However, with that in mind, looking back over recent 49ers history shows very few holdouts.  I was trying to figure out who the last 49ers holdout was and I think it was Julian Peterson in 2004.  Rashaun Woods was a threat too, but I can't remember for sure and google is not much help on that.  Of course, it is Rashaun Woods, so who really cares, right?

The 49ers clearly have struggled on the field and battled with inconsistencies and being generally bad since Mooch left town.  However, while the team has struggled under Nolan, they have definitely brought in some quality talent, while also developing some of their own picks within.  During all this time, there has never been contract holdout drama.  One thing that plays in the team's favor is that a rookie's contract apparently cannot be redone until AFTER the second year.  So you get a couple years without holding out after a deal is done.

At the same time, even when it's been last minute, like with Vernon Davis, the team has gotten their draft picks into camp on time.  Making the leap from college to the pros is a big step up and rookies need every minute of training camp they can get.  JaMarcus Russell missed all of training camp last season and I can't begin to imagine how much that stunted his initial growth.  Even for a guy like Kentwan Balmer, getting in on time means he gets to meet with the likes of Bryant Young.  While Balmer probably wouldn't have missed all of training camp, maybe BY only makes it to the early part of camp and he misses out on that chance?  It's all speculation, but worth considering.

So, even though the team has stunk up the joint at times, we can at least take some solace knowing that our front office isn't entirely incompetent.  Over the last couple of months we've seen them re-sign the likes of Delanie Walker and Michael Robinson.  While neither is a starter, they are important cogs that could make key contributions this year and into the future.

So the question then becomes, do the 49ers have Patrick Willis's agent on speed dial for the moment the season ends and they can renegotiate a long term deal while rewarding Bamm Bamm for his all around awesomeness?