Steven Jackson trade rumors: If Rams are bluffing, will other teams bite?

On Tuesday—the original date of the NFL Trade Deadline, before Hurricane Sandy pushed it back—the St. Louis Rams all but insisted they wouldn't trade Steven Jackson. But they didn't quite say it, and NFL reporters get kind of bored around sport's worst trade deadline, so expect more whispering and near-denials all the way up to Thursday's deadline.

The parties of the second part have mostly been whittled down to the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals, at this point. Turf Show Times has more, and ends with what has become the established wisdom about Jackson since his availability became a question: The Rams won't get more than a mid-round draft pick, but if they can get a fourth-rounder they might as well go for it.

I'd like to see Steven Jackson spend the rest of his career in a Rams uniform; he's their all-time leading rusher, and it would be poetic justice to see him finally spend time on a winner without leaving the Edward Jones Dome. But ever since he and the team mutually agreed to void the next year of his contract it's seemed like that's an impossibility.

And if that's impossible, I'd rather have a fourth-round draft pick than the last half of Steven Jackson's last season, in which he's being pushed awkwardly by the second-to-last pick in the draft.