Stetson Bennett is currently entrenched as the Los Angeles Rams’ backup quarterback. Even with a first-round pick waiting in the wings for the starting job someday (if everything works out as planned), the No. 2 job belongs to Bennett for now.
But is there a scenario that would convince the Rams to move on from the former fourth rounder and collegiate national champion?
Kevin Clark of ESPN raised the idea this week on an episode of “The Mina Kimes Show,” trying to advance the idea that Bennett’s college
offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, might be interested in injecting Bennett into the quarterback battle with his current team, the Cleveland Browns.
“Who was Stetson Bennett’s college offensive coordinator, who just swears by the guy?” Clark asked, continuing: “They had a rocky relationship but they ended up winning national championships over it, and now he speaks glowingly…Should [the Browns] go out and get another quarterback? I’m just throwing it out there.”
There is some logic behind all of this. Clark laid out why it makes sense for the team that would be acquiring Bennett. As for the Rams, they obviously have a lot invested in Ty Simpson already while Bennett is clearly not part of the franchise’s long-term plans. He’s only under contract through this season as it is.
Any potential return for Bennett would be modest at best, of course. Los Angeles couldn’t make a move for a completely conditional pick, that’s not nearly valuable enough for a current backup quarterback, even if he’s not exactly the best one in the sport. But you aren’t going to recoup his initial draft capital cost from 2023 either (a fourth-round pick), so the front office would have to weigh whether or not Bennett is worth a sixth, or even more likely seventh, rounder.
The biggest risk here is that Matthew Stafford misses a prolonged amount of time and Simpson simply isn’t ready to play. If you ship Bennett out, you’re one unfortunate play away from that reality. Then, you’re talking about finding another option who could survive in the system for multiple games, which at this moment would include … Jimmy Garoppolo?
Admittedly, this scenario is unlikely. The return would have to blow Les Snead’s socks off (and probably Sean McVay’s, too) and Simpson would have to have had a genuinely superb, transcendent camp and preseason. We know Simpson is entering the NFL as a project with limited playing time from college, so putting the backup job for a Super Bowl contender on his shoulders is a massive ask.
That’s not intended to oversell Bennett, who has played a whopping zero snaps in the NFL since being drafted in 2023. However, he has been with the team since then, he’s familiar with their expectations and he at least knows the system.
All those things combined are why this is an interesting hypothetical.
Of course, the Browns seem content to just let Sanders and Watson duke it out in one of the more unpleasant quarterback battles of recent memory, so that option may not be on the table after all.
