The Los Angeles Rams begin their three-game preseason schedule on Sunday as they host the Dallas Cowboys at SoFi Stadium. From there, head coach Sean McVay and company face the L.A. Chargers in a technical road game and close things out against the Houston Texans in Texas.
It’s unclear exactly what the Rams roster is going to look like for these three games, as injuries have already emaciated parts of the depth chart, especially the offensive line and secondary. But one part of the roster where the Rams are completely healthy is at quarterback, where Matthew Stafford, Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett are all available.
Stafford, as the bona fide starter, won’t get any reps in preseason, as is the case with all of the Rams’ starters. That leaves Bennett — who missed his entire rookie season with a personal matter — and veteran free agent signing Garoppolo. As for the latter, McVay left it up to him to decide if he wants to play in preseason, but that the head coach would rather him sit out.
“As far as Jimmy, I’ll talk to Jimmy. I would probably say probably not because I think it’s important for Stetson to get a bunch of work and Jimmy’s played a lot in this league,” McVay said. “If he said that he thought he wanted to, knowing that he’s going to miss those first couple weeks, I’d be open to it. My inclination right now is that I would not want to play him unless he told me he wanted to.”
Garoppolo is coming off of an injury-riddled season with the Las Vegas Raiders, meaning he might want to get some on-field time before the season starts. However, there is no use risking re-injury or putting himself in harms way for preseason games given all that he’s already accomplished in the NFL.
The Rams brought in Garoppolo to be a stable bench option should Stafford suffer an injury. And if the veteran quarterback gets hurt in a meaningless preseason game, it would defeat the purpose of having brought him in at all.
On the other hand, Bennett did not get much of a chance to develop during his rookie season while being away from the team. Now that he is back, the Rams will want to see what they have in the two-time National Champion this preseason by giving him a ton of reps.
Rams’ Sean McVay expects Puka Nacua back for Week 1
The Rams’ poor injury luck continued when it was announced that Puka Nacua suffered a knee injury in practice after making a catch in the end zone. Nacua is also considered week-to-week, though McVay said he should be ready to go for Week 1’s matchup against the Detroit Lions.
