Saying Stetson Bennett\u2019s NFL career started with a thud is like saying Conan O\u2019Brien has red hair. After being drafted in the fourth-round, he struggled mightily in preseason action and then missed the first game of the regular season with a shoulder injury. Three days later, he was placed on the Reserve\/Non-Football Illness (NFI) list, citing mental health issues, which ended his season. What the issue was, we\u2019ll likely never know, but the Rams obviously agreed it was the best thing for him.<\/p>\n
Since then, Bennett hasn\u2019t played in the regular season but has made progress in the offseason.<\/p>\n
His first game in the 2024 preseason was actually a much better performance than anything we saw the previous year, and yet it left a very bad taste in the Rams\u2019 fans\u2019 mouths. It should be understandable that after his disastrous, mysterious rookie year, he\u2019d be extremely nervous being back in the spotlight, and it really showed up in the form of four interceptions. Some execution mistakes, coupled with poor choices, left the Cowboys with a late lead, but Bennett refused to throw in the towel and brought the Rams back with a game-winning drive. A touchdown pass to Miller Forristall, yes, Miller Forristall, with four seconds left, sealed the Rams\u2019 victory and might have brought back memories of him leading the University of Georgia to two consecutive national titles.<\/p>\n
Bennett\u2019s second preseason start was better, not good, but better. After a meaningless interception where he had to throw on fourth and goal, he led the team, once again, to a fourth-quarter game-winning drive. This time, the winning touchdown was a 47 yard (55 yards in the air) bomb to JJ Lapp, yes, JJ Lapp.<\/p>\n
Fewer mental mistakes game by game and some mechanical improvements as well. Most surprising to me was the improved velocity. Whether it was him bulking up a bit or just having the confidence to simply let it fly, it was tangible.<\/p>\n
Parts of both starts were really good, while other parts were simply okay, but the quality throws and decisions would lead you to believe he could be a functional backup. Don\u2019t forget, he\u2019s had fewer than 200 throws against NFL defenses.<\/p>\n
His numbers in 2024\u202641-69 for 437 yds, 59% completion rate, 2TDs and 5INTs<\/p>\n
His numbers in 2025\u202644-64 for 512 yds, 69% completion rate, 5TDS and 3INTs<\/p>\n
With such a small sample size to look at, it\u2019s impossible to make a realistic assessment as to whether Bennett should be the Rams\u2019 QB2, especially when we have zero NFL snaps for Simpson. Having said that, though, just based on the visual improvement and the faith McVay seems to have in him, I\u2019d actually have zero problem with the team going forward with Stetson Bennett as the backup next season.<\/p>\n
Ty Simpson or Stetson Bennett?<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Who do you want to see as the backup QB?<\/p>\n Closes in 3 days \u2022 46 total votesView results<\/p>\n Ty SimpsonStetson BennettRec 0CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReplyRead 18 replies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Would it better serve the Los Angeles Rams to have rookie first round pick Ty Simpson or fourth-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,1014,58,5088,5089,2444,2611,6,424],"class_list":["post-920115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-rams","tag-football","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-los-angeles-rams-depth-chart","tag-los-angeles-rams-roster","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesrams","tag-nfl","tag-rams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116757721888258108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kenneth](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/897267_o.gif\"\/)
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