The Washington Redskins will make the trip up the beltway to Baltimore to take on the Ravens Thursday night as the two football franchise kick off their preseason schedules by playing inside their home state.

Two players added to injury report Thursday morning

Most people involved in the daily goings of the Washington Redskins and their current injury situation as they head into their first preseason game tonight in Baltimore thought the team had four players who were going to miss Thursday's opener. Thursday morning brought the news that on top of Jamison Crowder, Josh Doctson, Fabian Moreau and Montae Nicholson, the team also had linebackers Junior Galette (hamstring) and Preston Smith (sprained ankle) who will miss the Ravens game.

While Gruden had previously mentioned that Smith would miss a "week or so" of practice, the news on Galette's injury was unknown.

While preseason games mean absolutely nothing, they are the time for the team to get used to game-time situations and to get team-chemistry together as they get ready for the trials and tribulations of a 16-game season. It's hard to gauge just how much not playing in the first preseason game will hurt any of these guys when you consider Redskins head coach Jay Gruden didn't even announce a plan on snap-counts of individuals deemed as starters, meaning Gruden doesn't expect to use them much.

The Hamstring Chronicles

The appropriate conversation for this game a week ago would have been surrounded by talks on how many plays the first team offensive and defensive units would see.

Fast-forward back to reality, and now this has turned into an injury discussion. Even though said injuries are not of the major variety, they are still occurring, and if the latest two are any evidence, they seem to be hamstring heavy, so to speak.

The Redskins will enter Thursday night's "Battle of the Beltway," with six players who are inactive as a result of injury (not counting DeAngelo Hall, Jordan Reed or Kendall Thompson, who are all on the PUP list currently).

Four of those players, Jamison Crowder, Josh Doctson, Martell Spaight and Junior Galette, are currently being treated for hamstring injuries. Hamstring injuries are often a situation that can't be avoided as players are continuously running and twisting and turning. Redskins head coach Jay Gruden thinks it's normal for every time to have four or five guys with hamstring issues.

When asked about it this past week Gruden stopped short of calling them 'routine injuries.'

“No, we have Jamison, Doctson. Spaight was a hamstring, that’s three," said Gruden. "Cravens was cramping, I think. Harris was a knee… I think you look around the league and look at the injury reports right now, I think everybody has four or five guys with hamstrings or calves.”

Gruden's comments were on Monday, the team has Galette to the list of hamstrung Redskins Thursday morning.

The news was first broke to Redskins Nation by ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who mistakenly said Galette was missing the game with a hurt hand. Galette shot back moments later by calling her "Fake News."

Redskins fans will have to wait longer to see Galette in burgundy and gold

Redskins fans have been waiting to see Junior Galette take the field in burgundy and gold for going on three years now.

The 29-year-old linebacker signed with the Redskins 741 days ago and still hasn't so much as taken the field to start a preseason game yet as injuries have killed both of his previous seasons in Washington. While frustration has consumed him at moments, he's still extremely motivated and directed towards having a monster year with the Redskins.

Below is tonight's inactive list:

OLB Junior Galette - hamstring

ILB Martrell Spaight - hamstring

OLB Preston Smith - ankle

TE Jordan Reed - toe

WR Josh Doctson - hamstring

WR Jamison Crowder - hamstring

WR Kendal Thompson - leg

CB Fabian Moreau - pec

S Montae Nicholson - labrum

CB DeAngelo Hall - ACL
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