The Los Angeles Rams made a surprising move this week, placing rookie backup quarterback Stetson Bennett on the reserve/non-football illness list. Bennett had established himself as Matthew Stafford’s primary backup, but the team will search elsewhere with the roster move being made on Bennett’s behalf.
Rams head coach Sean McVay knew he would have to answer questions about the roster move. It’s rare for a player to get placed on this list with little to no warning, but Bennett will now miss at least the next four weeks and McVay has absolutely no interest in discussing the specifics of it.
McVay quickly attempted to put an end to any line of questioning regarding Bennett’s situation when he announced the move.
“We’ll also place (QB) Stetson Bennett on NFI,” McVay said on Wednesday. “Out of respect for him and the situation, I’m going to leave all the specifics in particulars in-house and want to be able to do that out of respect for that situation, so not going to really have any follow-up information or anything that I’ll give in that regards after that, so you guys go ahead.”
McVay then had to shoot down a question related to Bennett’s previous shoulder injury and explain the reasoning behind wanting to keep the situation private.
“No, and that’s all I’m going to say, and I really hope that you can please respect my wishes in regards to keeping that in-house,” McVay said. “I understand you have a job to do, but there’s certain things that I think are a little bit bigger and more important and out of respect for the particulars in the specifics, we want to be able to keep it in-house and that’s where I’d like to leave it please.”
Clearly, Bennett’s situation is a serious one, hence the discretion from McVay. Perhaps more details will come out as his absence continues or when he eventually returns, but for now, it’ll be at least a four-week hiatus for the Rams 2023 draft pick and backup quarterback.
McVay: Rams have Brett Rypien in-house
The Rams are also staying in-house for their new backup quarterback, as they’ll turn to former practice squad backup Brett Rypien to stand behind Stafford on the depth chart.
“I think there’s certain things that are a lot bigger than that. The fortunate thing for us is that (QB) Brett Rypien has been in-house. He’s on our practice squad. He was the backup last week and he’s going to continue to be in that situation until anything changes on that note, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
