Stetson Bennett returns to practice for LA Rams, addresses one-year absence

Stetson Bennett took a break from football last season, with the first-year NFL player stepping away due to mental health. However, Bennett is officially back with the Los Angeles Rams and practiced with the team on Tuesday.

There was no specific reason provided as to why Bennett was away from the team when speaking to the media. “Mental health” was the category he said it fell under. Bennett is happy to be back around football though, beginning to prepare for the 2024 season.

“Stetson Bennett is back practicing with the Rams after his absence last year,” Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic said via X. “He’s happy to be back and feels good, said he missed football and while he didn’t want to share specifics he agreed that his situation fell under the mental health umbrella.”

The Rams posted videos of their quarterbacks taking reps against air on Tuesday. Matthew Stafford was first up, followed by the newly-acquired Jimmy Garoppolo. Bennett was third in line, sporting the No. 13 — the same one he did while with the Georgia Bulldogs.

Cue the QBs. pic.twitter.com/rahM3D99dQ

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) May 20, 2024

Rams head coach Sean McVay addressed Bennett’s situation during the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, saying there would still be things to assess at the time. Stafford is obviously the starting quarterback when healthy but no backup has been clearly defined.

“I think the first thing is you connect with him, which we’ll do that at the appropriate time and you figure out, where are you at and is this something that we feel like is best for him and for our football team to bring him back into this ecosystem?” McVay said. “Those will be conversations that we will have. And then, I think once we have a better idea of what we’ll do with that, then that will give clarity.

“But you do make sure that you know that right now, we’ve got Matthew Stafford. And really in our minds, we don’t have a backup quarterback that’s on this roster. But we’ll see what that looks like in terms of how that affects Stetson and the draft or free agency.”

Bennett is now back with the team and will seemingly have his chance to compete. The 26-year-old has experience playing in the preseason but did not see a snap during the regular season. Taking a year off has hopefully helped him and will keep Bennett available for the entire 2024 season.