Sean McVay explains why Rams won't play starters vs. Broncos on Saturday

[Riverumbbq]

By: Cameron DaSilva | 18 hours ago

For most teams, the third preseason game is when starters play the most. It’s often called the “dress rehearsal” for the regular season, giving key players one last tune-up before the real games begin.
That won’t be the case for the Los Angeles Rams this weekend. After seeing the Rams play a handful of defensive starters in the third preseason game last year – albeit, for just one series – there was some speculation that they might put starters out there on Saturday against the Broncos.

Sean McVay cleared that up in his press conference Wednesday, saying the Rams will continue holding their top players out.
“When you look at some of the continuity that we have now on both sides of the ball coming back, you say, ‘OK, if something were to happen, is it really worth that risk?’ And in our mind, we just feel that answer is no,” McVay said. “That’s the approach we’re taking. I total understand if people don’t agree with that, but we always make decisions that we feel are in the best interest of our team, and that’s really just for this unit.”

The explanation makes sense. Last year, the Rams had a bunch of new starters. Cory Littleton was stepping in at linebacker, Ndamukong Suh was a newcomer, and both Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters were in their first year with the Rams. McVay and Wade Phillips wanted to give them one series as a unit before pulling them.
With so many returning starters on both sides of the ball, McVay feels comfortable with the team heading into the regular season.
“Not that we have it figured out by any stretch, but that’s just the approach that we think is best for us,” he said. “And we feel good about having gotten the chance to have those four practice opportunities against the Chargers and Raiders combined, and then we’ll get the chance to have some inter-squad scrimmages over the next week and a half or so.”
It remains to be seen if the Broncos will play their starters as they have the last two weeks. Coach Vic Fangio said “that’s up in the air right now,” so it’s possible Denver will rest its starters, as well – especially with this being the team’s fourth preseason game.

Sean McVay explains why Rams won't play starters vs. Broncos on Saturday

For most teams, the third preseason game is when starters play the most. It’s often called the “dress rehearsal” for the regular season, giving key players one last tune-up before the real games begin. That won’t be the case for the Los Angeles Rams this weekend. After se

theramswire.usatoday.com

 

[Malibu]

This is the right move, maybe it could hurt us against the Panthers, but Can will be Rusty and unsure my guess after last season so I am sure we will be fine.

 

[Merlin]

I expect our offensive performance to be hideous vs the Broncos starters. And the bottom roster OL are going to play a ton too, in order to sort them.

Gonna be some chicken little going on after this game lol.

 

[ztoben]

Chubb is going to murder our 2nd string oline...

 

[OldSchool]

Chubb is going to murder our 2nd string oline...

You’re assuming he plays more than a handful of snaps? We don’t know yet what Fangio will do. Actually we have a little info.

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeKlis/status/1164243272107270144


More Broncos reporters saying this will likely be backups for both teams.

 

[Merlin]

That's great news. If the game is depth all the way through we should have a great look at these guys without trying too hard to consider who it was against. Hope that's the way it goes down.

 

[Zodi]

I think McVay is a trend setter in this regard. I bet going forward, we'll see more and more teems withhold starters for the entire preseason until eventually, it's cut down to two games.

HOF game teams play five preseason games. That's insane.

 

[bubbaramfan]

It must be apparent to anyone who has watched the Rams OL the last two pre season games that they need more than a few more snaps. Only two more games and that's probably not nearly enough.

 

[Varg6]

Honestly, I hope this is the beginning of the end of four pre-season games. We only need two. I get we need to evaluate the backups, but as a fan this is insanely boring and just...not fun.

 

[FrantikRam]

I am totally on board with this, but it's worth noting that our offense was fairly mediocre against the Raiders last year - Goff took a while to get going. And that was against one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Now we're playing Kuechly and a possibly healthy Cam Newton, with a match up nightmare in CMC....not to mention traveling across country and playing at 10am PT.

Have to hope that the Rams looked shaky last year because they weren't able to prep for Gruden, with him having been out of the league for so long. Obviously we can review film from last year for Turner's offense and that defense.

But...we could be trading rest in the preseason for a loss on opening day.

 

[Soul Surfer]

I expect our offensive performance to be hideous vs the Broncos.

Gonna be some chicken little going on after this game lol.

You mean unlike the first two games?

 

[yrba1]

Considering we came out fine last season against the Raiders during the 2018 season opener, I have no issues with McVay's preseason approach considering the first four games of the regular season tends to play like the preseason in terms of intensity.

 

[LARams_1963]

Welp... the Offense didn't play last preseason and put up 33 on Oakland, in Oakland week 1. Now they've got more continuity with another season of starters all returning (minus 2 on O-Line)

 

[oldnotdead]

The injury to Cam IMO will reverberate through the league. Do you think they will ever play Cam in another pre-season game? Other teams will take note, that the one player they can least afford to lose is their QB. That's why I would bet that the number of starting QB's withheld from pre-season will skyrocket next year. At the very least I bet teams will not play starting players on both offensive and defensive units.

McVay is right, teams get more out of joint practices than preseason games. They sell tickets for scripted scrimmages. One maybe two pre-season games are enough.

 

[Rynie]

I think this will come back to bit y'all. Not trolling. One of my beefs with Garrett is he doesn't play the starters enough, and we ALWAYS start off rusty. Will your startes play at all in the PS?

 

[SteezyEndo]

I think this will come back to bit y'all. Not trolling. One of my beefs with Garrett is he doesn't play the starters enough, and we ALWAYS start off rusty. Will your startes play at all in the PS?

I got to agree here. You should give your starters a taste for what is about to happen. It comes down to familiarity. Its about knowing what to expect even when it doesn’t count. I think we should showcase our starters even if its vanilla as hell. They need to get familiar...

 

[Malibu]

You all need to remember, all the skill guys on the offense have played together for awhile now. They do not need much to be ready for the opener. With Cam possibly gone or somewhat limited, we will be fine. This team is real solid. We all know it. McVay is imo one of two best HCs in the NFL.

For me personally I completely agree with with McVay. I never understood why any premier talent would be playing in a game that doesn't count completely fiscally irresponsible. Teams if they think about it they can't afford for their star player go out in a meaningless game. Just dumb.

 

[oldnotdead]

If Cam misses the opener what does that do to their chances in that game? Were the few snaps he took in that meaningless pre-season game worth losing your starting QB for the season opener, a game that counts? Look at all the players lost in pre-season. You get better work in controlled scrimmages with another team than in pre-season. Look how often a team wins in pre-season and bombs in the regular season. What does that say about the value of those games?

BTW if Dak had gotten hurt on that sack what would the Cowboy fans be saying?

 

[SteezyEndo]

BTW if Dak had gotten hurt on that sack what would the Cowboy fans be saying?

Why do we need Witten? Bring Romo back!

 

[kurtfaulk]

I think this will come back to bit y'all. Not trolling. One of my beefs with Garrett is he doesn't play the starters enough, and we ALWAYS start off rusty. Will your startes play at all in the PS?

8 and 0.

.