The Los Angeles Rams were one of the first teams to hold their starters out of action for the entire preseason, a strategy deployed by Sean McVay when he took over as head coach in 2017. They’ve been very cautious with their top players in meaningless exhibition games, choosing not to put them in harm’s way before the season begins.
Well, that strategy will have to change this year. The Rams don’t have the luxury of resting their starters this preseason because there simply aren’t as many clear-cut starters on the roster as there have been in years past. That’s the result of having such a young roster that’s lacking star players such as Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner, Leonard Floyd and Allen Robinson – all of whom were in L.A. last season.
This season, the Rams will have to lean heavily on younger players, specifically those in their first and second NFL seasons. And because of their lack of experience, McVay will be forced to put them on the field in the preseason so they can gain some comfort before the real games begin.
Les Snead said on the Doug Gottlieb Show this week that the plan is for the Rams to play many of their starters, with the exception of obvious players such as Tyler Higbee, Rob Havenstein, Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald and Matthew Stafford.
“It will not be like years past but it will be like years past,” he said. “And I know he (McVay) had some names, you know, because we do have players like Rob Havenstein, Tyler Higbee – some players that have been here since our first Super Bowl into the second Super Bowl. So the team does have some core veterans that will get the, let’s call it, ‘non-preseason-play treatment.’ But there is an element of trying to engineer as competent a collective as possible and because we mentioned we’re gonna – let’s talk the defensive side of the ball. There’s a lot of players on their rookie contracts on that side of the ball, other than Aaron Donald, and so we’re gonna need those guys to gel during the preseason.”
Donald, Ernest Jones and Jordan Fuller are really the only players on defense who have started for at least a full season in the NFL. The rest of the group is lacking NFL experience, including projected starters such as Cobie Durant, Michael Hoecht and Derion Kendrick.
On offense, the Rams can safely hold out Van Jefferson, Brian Allen, Joe Noteboom, Coleman Shelton, Ben Skowronek and Tutu Atwell. Skowronek has played enough snaps in the NFL that he doesn’t need preseason reps, while Atwell got last preseason off because he was projected to have a significant role.
Other than that, we should expect to see a lot of different players suiting up this summer before the season begins – particularly those who are competing for starting jobs and the final roster spots.
