As Sean McVay continues to mull over Stetson Bennett’s value to the L.A. Rams as the backup quarterback, the head coach left the door open for rookie Ty Simpson to take the job away by Week 1’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. McVay left it in no uncertain terms on Tuesday: One of those two quarters “will be the backup in Australia”.
This may seem obvious to some of you, but it is actually a very bold statement that few predicted was possible because for the entire summer, Simpson’s chances of being
the backup have been seen as low. Now McVay is saying that despite not having a stellar second preseason game, the rookie could win the job.
In reality, Ty Simpson should be the favorite and Bennett should be cut or traded.
McVay did also say that the Rams will carry three quarterbacks, but he never committed to Bennett being one of those three. Carrying Bennett as a third quarterback also just seems strange.
In his fourth year, with little hope to ever start an NFL game if he’s still not good enough to be the backup, what is the point of carrying Bennett on the 53-man roster at all?
The fourth player who nobody talks about is Matthew Caldwell. The undrafted free agent will make his preseason debut against the L.A. Chargers, which is also when we’ll get our next look at Simpson. McVay said the team has not yet decided if Bennett will play in that game as well.
We know Matthew Stafford and Simpson are on the team. We know that McVay said the team will carry three quarterbacks. But there’s still mystery left to be solved with how this roster and depth chart will shake out.
