The Rams are Solid at Quarterback

Inglewood, CA (News4usonline) – Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay is good with his quarterback room heading into the regular season. Matthew Stafford, Stetson Bennett IV and Ty Simpson are the team’s signal-callers.    

McVay is okay with that. 

“We got three quarterbacks on our roster,” McVay said after the team’s final preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. “Obviously, we got the reigning MVP of the league, and then we got two guys that we feel really good about. 

“And if you say, what does that mean, that’s what it means, that we feel really good about those two guys, I’m not pigeonholing myself into any sort of decision other than that I feel really good about Stetson Bennett IV, I feel really good about Ty Simpson.” 

Going into training camp and the preseason, playing a backup role to Stafford, the league’s MVP, appeared to be a toss-up. Bennett, who led Georgia to two national championships, is heading into his third season. 

Before getting huge amounts of playing time in training camp and the preseason, rookie Ty Simpson had last played in the Southern California sun when he led the Alabama Crimson Tide to a Rose Bowl appearance against eventual national champions Indiana. 

There was uncertainty whether or not veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo would hang around for another season to sit behind Stafford. As the summer lingered, the Rams’ quarterback picture became more clearer.

Garoppolo did not appear at training camp. That left Bennett and Simpson to compete among themselves for the No. 2 quarterback position. Both players have shown flashes that they are ready to take that next step as a signal-caller when called upon. 

Both players played solidly. In a 34-0 win against the New Orleans Saints, Bennett played great with two rushing touchdowns and completing 19 of 31 passes for 181 yards. 

Simpson appeared to take a page out of his teammate’s playbook, completing 18 of 23 passes for 119 yards in the Rams’ 20-18 win against the Chargers.  

He also tossed a touchdown to Brennan Presley. Simpson’s 11-yard touchdown throw to Pressely, following some fancy improvisation to evade the Chargers’ pass rush, was just as impressive as Bennett’s two rushing scores against the Saints.     

“I think some of the fun things to see are the off schedule, you know, there was a pressure look, they lost contain on the pressure, he escaped it, kept his eyes down the field and Brennan Presley did a great job of being able to work off schedule with him.” 

“I think in the games, you have really seen a lot of really good things from him in each of these last three games,” McVay went on to say. “He didn’t have as many opportunities last week. Tonight, and obviously in Week One, been really pleased with Ty, he did a really good job, I thought he had good command, he’s got a great game day demeanor, it was good to see him do his thing tonight.”   

As far as what he thought about his off-schedule touchdown pass, Simpson

“Yeah, you know me and Rags [Associate Coordinator/Quarterbacks, Dave Ragone] went through some stuff yesterday, two days ago. Just some blitzes and third downs and stuff,” Simpson remarked. 

“So I kind of had an idea that in red zone, you know, they were going to go banned. There was some miscommunication aligned with a funky front and I tried not to take a negative play, B.P. [Brennan Presley] did a good job of playing football, getting open, and I just tried to get the good play of the ball,” he added.