Rams and Saints hold joint practice 

Carson, CA (News4usOnline) – Two days before the Los Angeles Rams were to play the Los  Angeles Chargers in a preseason game, the team held a joint practice with the New Orleans Saints at the Dignity Health Sports Park. 

The scrimmage produced some excitable moments, but otherwise was a couple of hours where starters from both teams got some needed reps. 

“Good day’s worth of work,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said afterward. “It’s always beneficial to be able to get a chance to work against somebody else in some of these competitive settings and we’ll have a lot of different things that we can learn from. I liked being able to get the work. I appreciate [Saints Head Coach] Kellen [Moore] and his group for being able to work with us and there was a lot of good stuff for us to learn from today.”

Missing from the practice field jaunt was Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Backups Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett got the call in place of Stafford. Stafford, who is dealing with a back injury, is trying to work his way back onto the field. Stafford is scheduled to take part in a workout on Saturday. 

McVay said what Stafford is battling through is both pain-related and functional.  

“I think probably a little bit of both,” McVay said. “ We’re trying to get our hands around this as well so I don’t really have much more information other than we’re trying some different things that are hopefully going to be in alignment with getting him back out on the field. I’ll have updates for you as we go.”

Regarding how Stafford’s main backup played against the Saints, McVay described Garoppolo’s performance as a bit uneven. 

 “I thought he was up and down,” McVay remarked. “I think their rush did a good job, especially in some of those early periods and it didn’t seem like we were able to find a rhythm. But what I did love is once we got into some of the second down to third downs, I thought he was seeing coverage well, distributing the ball. I love the way that he finished in the two-minute drill where he hits a big completion to [Wide Receiver] Davante [Adams] right off the jump and then we’re really one more completion away from being in the position that we want. He managed that really well, but I thought he did a great job.”

There was one tense moment during the practice in which running back Kyren Williams absorbed a hard hit as he was going down. McVay, who got into a few animated moments with several New Orleans players, immediately went over to make sure to unclog the fog of bodies around his star runner.

 “It was one of those deals where the guys were just playing hard. It wasn’t anything malicious, but when you get a guy in that position and you’re getting rolled up on, we just want to avoid that foot traffic. It wasn’t anything… we got it under control and I got a lot of respect for those guys and we did a good job being able to move forward,” McVay said.