After taking off most of his rookie season, Stetson Bennett is back on the football field, competing to back up aging veteran Matthew Stafford. It’s still a mystery as to why he wasn’t with the team in 2023, but the Rams GM dropped a hint as to what happened.
Bennett was exhausted. That’s according to Les Snead, the Rams general manager who answered questions about Bennett, the former Georgia Bulldog. Like the rest of the NFL, the Rams opened phase three of OTAs. They welcomed back Bennett, who landed on the reserve/non-football injury list last September, two weeks into the regular season. He didn’t return the rest of the season.
“I know this, last year was very beneficial for him,” Snead told Channel 19 in Alabama. “I think he took advantage of that year away from the game. You know what, he’s an exhausted human being based on everything he had done. Let’s just take it as an individual — to walk on, to go to JUCO, to come back, to turn down small schools, say ‘I’m going to try to do this Georgia thing.’
“To win a job, then to win the thing, and then to determine, ‘I’m going to come back.’ And when you come back, it’s really win it again or you failed. And that does take a toll on a human being, so I was jacked for Stetson to be able to take that moment and breathe a little bit.”
Stetson Bennett re-joined Rams for OTAs last month
In fact, Snead said that Bennett has been “doing his thing” with his teammates ever since OTAs started in early April.
Bennett being back is good news for the Rams, which suffered through some quarterback backup issues last season. Stafford is 36. It’s difficult to stay healthy when you’re that age in the NFL, so the Rams need a dependable No. 2.
This offseason, LA signed Jimmy Garoppolo, who had been that guy with the Raiders until he got benched, then released. Garoppolo will need to serve a two-game NFL suspension to start the season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. The Rams also kept Dresser Winn as a reserve QB. He was with the team last year in training camp, then released as the season began. LA signed him again in November.
All the quarterbacks were practicing this week as the Rams did full team, non-contact drills.
LA Coach Sean McVay was complimentary of Bennett.
“He’s done a great job,” McVay told reporters. “He’s got a good look in his eye. I really appreciate the way that he’s come to work. He’s been really attentive in the meetings. I think [quarterbacks coach] Dave Ragone has done a great job with the quarterbacks as a whole. His command, his ability to communicate and Stetson’s had a couple good days and it’s been good having him out here.”
Phase three of OTAs will run through June 6. The Rams will come back for minicamp, June 10-12. Maybe by then Bennett will be comfortable talking about why he needed to take so much time off.
But the Rams have kept it vague. As McVay told reporters last season “there are certain things that I think are a little bit bigger and more important. And out of respect for the particulars and the specifics, (I) want to be able to keep it in-house.”
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