Matthew Stafford was back at practice on Monday, pausing weeks of speculation about how long his back injury would keep him from working out with the L.A. Rams. After the Rams declined to comment about Stafford’s throwing session on Saturday, there were concerns that Stafford had a setback, but now we know that Sean McVay was just waiting to share the good news.
The team tweeted out early on Monday morning that Stafford was practicing with the offense once again, hopefully putting back concerns to
the back burner for the rest of the year.
The Rams have roughly three weeks to go until their Week 1 kickoff against the Houston Texans, leaving plenty of time for Stafford to prepare for the game and also for the team to find out if the quarterback’s back will be able to hold up through practice for that long. The silver lining to Stafford missing this much time in practice is that backup Jimmy Garoppolo has been shaking off the rust a little bit and third-stringer Stetson Bennett has had more reps with the twos than at any other point in his career.
For now, the Rams are showing confidence in Stafford’s back and his ability to hold up through the last week of preseason practices, although we know he won’t be playing in the preseason finale against the Browns this Saturday. That will still be Bennett. Coincidentally, Cleveland could name 40-year-old Joe Flacco as their starter any day now. That would make Flacco and Aaron Rodgers as the only starting QBs in the NFL older than Stafford.
Lucky for the Rams, Stafford does look set to be a Week 1 starter after all.
