By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

One way or another, Rams quarterback Marc Bulger plans to be under center when the team opens the regular season on Sept. 13 against Seattle.

In the past two days, Bulger has made a couple of important steps toward reaching that goal as he recovers from a broken right pinkie.

On Sunday, Bulger threw for the first time, tossing 21 passes in a side session. Monday, Bulger threw about 30 passes and even took some shotgun snaps to get re-acclimated to catching the ball.

“If we had a game tomorrow, I could play,” Bulger said. “It’s a pain thing. Guys find ways, there’s ways to get around that. You don’t want to do it too much so when the time comes if it’s still an issue, it won’t be an issue.”

Of course, the Rams don’t have a game tomorrow and they don’t have a meaningful one until that contest against the Seahawks. The Rams play Kansas City at the Edward Jones Dome in the final game of the preseason on Thursday.

Originally, the Rams and Bulger had held out hope that perhaps Bulger could be recovered and ready to go in that final exhibition game in order to get back in the flow of the offense after missing a few weeks.

That doesn’t appear likely barring some unforeseen recovery in the next couple of nights.

“Right now we are planning on him not going,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “He’d have to come in here tomorrow begging to play and saying that it’s OK. But right now my guess is that he would not go. We would be smart about it. If it changes in the next 48 hours then we’ll adjust.”

Barring that, the Rams and Bulger are aiming to use the rest of this week to slowly ease Bulger back into the mix. He will throw even more on Tuesday afternoon and is likely to continue throwing every day between now and next week.

In that time, Bulger isn’t likely to take snaps under center as the Rams wish to remain cautious in fear of a possible re-break or setback to the finger.

“That’s how we injured it so we are avoiding that exact movement for now just to be extra safe,” Bulger said. “We probably could take snaps now but I think we are just erring on the side of caution with everything right now.”

Bulger’s throwing session on Monday came exactly two weeks after he first injured the digit on Aug. 17.

To that point, Bulger had participated in every practice (almost 80 of them including OTAs and minicamps) and the first preseason game. The new offensive system was installed and the Rams had been going over it a little extra.

With Bulger out, not much has changed in terms of the way he prepares. He has spent the past two weeks following along as closely as possible, taking extra care to ensure he’s getting mental repetitions and following along on the field.

In meeting rooms, Bulger says he’s been equally diligent so as to stay sharp on the play calling and protections.

“You try to write down more and if you have a protection or play you just try to think of different situations,” Bulger said. “When you practice, you worry about the reps and individual plays that day and you try to prepare yourself for that day. I am not looking forward. I am just trying to put more things in my brain and stay as busy as I can. Two weeks in two a day meetings, that’s a lot of time in there and guys, your mind can wander I’m just trying not to let that happen.”

All of that plus Bulger’s eight years in the league have Spagnuolo and the Rams confident that the missed time won’t affect Bulger’s play upon his return.

“You have always got to be concerned but you’re dealing with a guy that’s played a lot of football,” Spagnuolo said. “It’d be different if it was a first or second year guy. We will just trust in his experience in the past.”

From the looks of his throwing sessions, Bulger isn’t struggling too much to get back in the flow of throwing the ball.

Aside from one wobbly toss, Bulger appeared to be about normal. After throwing normally on Sunday, Bulger taped his pinkie and ring finger together on Monday so as to provide more support because he was throwing longer passes.

Bulger says the pinkie finger isn’t terribly important for controlling where the ball goes when it’s thrown so much as it’s needed to grip and hold on to the ball.

The Rams took another X ray on Bulger’s finger recently and it showed that the break is still there but the healing process had begun. Bulger says he will likely have another look at it as soon as this weekend to ensure that it’s making the proper progress.

Bulger is scheduled to throw again on Tuesday and says he could potentially even be involved in throwing some passes when the team does its skeleton (walk through) drills early in the practice.

And without flinching, Bulger says unequivocally that he will be ready and raring to go when the season kicks off on Sept. 13.

“The bone is still fractured,” Bulger said. “I think a week from today it will be even more healed. It would just be a shame to go out there and do too much today, take a snap and a re-break or whatever and get set back more. Everything we are doing is just to be safe. We are right on course.”