Rams, Cowboys Practice Takeaways

Woodland Hills (News4usonline) – The Los Angeles Rams inched a little closer of their 2026 season opener by holding a joint practice against the Dallas Cowboys at their practice facility. 

Rams head coach Sean McVay was pleased overall with what he saw from his team.

“There was a lot of good work that we got today against an excellent opponent, just bouncing back and forth,” McVay remarked afterward. “I thought the teams periods were competitive and most importantly, we can learn. I like the way that really both groups competed. There are a lot of great players.” 

The Rams had one notable absentee from the scrimmage against the Cowboys: edge rusher Myles Garrett. Garrett did not participate as McVay and the Rams decided to hold him out from playing.

“I was surprised you guys noticed that. He’s still got a little swelling in that knee, but he said, ‘I’m feeling about 85%.’ I don’t know what 100% is going to look like, but it must be pretty good if that’s 85%. So we just erred on the side of caution,” said McVay. 

In what would have been a first look, it would have been quite exciting to catch a glimpse of Garrett in action. Garrett, a two-time defensive player of the year recipient, was acquired by the Rams in a trade with the Cleveland Brown in the offseason. 

Watching Garrett getting reps with the first team defense against the Cowboys a month out from the regular season opener would have been great from an optics standpoint. However, McVay and the Rams decided to nix that idea.    

“We’re getting to learn him. He’s so tough. He wanted to be able to be out there, but [after] listening to [Senior Vice President, Sports Medicine and Performance] Reggie [Scott], erring on the side of caution,” McVay said. “He has certainly made his impact felt, but we want to make sure that when he returns to play, he’s able to return to full performance and feel like himself. There’s nothing to be concerned about.”

An area McVay wasn’t too worried about in the scrimmage was the play of his offensive line. The Rams had a lot of movement upfront against their NFC Conference counterparts. McVay was impressed with what he saw.   

“I thought they got in and out of the huddle,” said McVay. “I thought we set our pads. There are some excellent guys across that front. Two big fellas inside that gave us some great looks. But for the most part, I thought we were able to do a nice job.” 

“I thought there was some good strain in protection, switching off some stunts. Again, when I go back and look at the film, I’ll be able to better articulate it, but I like the overall vibe and the feel in terms of how we got in and out of the huddle, stuff that you can’t necessarily see on the silent tape,” McVay went on to say.  

Outside of the play of the offensive and defensive lines, the quarterback position is one of intrigue for the Rams. The quarterback position is being closely monitored with rookie Ty Simpson and Stetson Bennett in head-to-head competition to see who eventually gets the nod for the backup role to Stafford. 

Stafford looked on-point as usual against the Cowboys. Simpson and Bennett both had up-and-down moments. Simpson fared a little better with Bennett throwing a couple of interceptions against the Dallas defense. 

“I saw a lot more of Matthew,” McVay said. “I thought he was great. There was one where [he was] just a little bit late over the middle, but I thought he kept the ball in play. I thought he saw coverage really well. I thought some guys did a good job stepping up.”

Even with wide receiver Puka Nacua missing a good chunk of the joint practice, Stafford, the league’s MVP last season, thought the offense of the Rams did some things well against the Cowboys. 

“I thought we did some good things,” Stafford said during a post-practice interview. “There are going to be things to clean up, but that’s every practice. I thought our guys up front played really well, the run game. We’ll go look at it on tape. Obviously, we’re two minutes off the field right now, but I felt like our guys inside played really well against a really stout defensive front that they have over there. Proud of those guys playing the way they did.”