Sean McVay says Jimmy Garoppolo won't play vs. Chargers, stresses importance of reps for Stetson Bennett

As the Los Angeles Rams get ready for this week’s preseason game against the Chargers, they won’t have Jimmy Garoppolo. Sean McVay confirmed he won’t play in the matchup, which comes as he gets ready to serve a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy.

That means Stetson Bennett will get some looks under center in the game behind Matthew Stafford. In fact, that’s by design.

McVay said getting Bennett reps is a reason why Garoppolo isn’t playing on Saturday. As for whether that will be the case in the preseason finale against the Houston Texans, McVay said he hasn’t made a decision yet.

“He won’t,” McVay said, via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, about whether Garoppolo was going to play. “I think it’s important to be able to get Stetson [Bennett] those reps. Jimmy got a bunch of work yesterday and I thought that was really good for him. He got even more than what we thought because Matthew [Stafford] participated in the first couple of periods. I thought it was great work for both of those guys.

“Jimmy has played a lot of football. I think it’s important for Stetson to be able to get those reps. Whether or not we take that same approach for the third preseason game, [we] haven’t determined that.”

Bennett had an interesting day in the preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys last week. He completed 24 of 38 passes for 224 yards, but threw for interceptions. However, he found some magic in the fourth quarter, finding Miller Forristall for the game-winning touchdown.

As for whether Stetson Bennett will be the QB2 while Garoppolo serves his suspension, Sean McVay said he still needs to see more before making a decision. That likely adds to the importance of Saturday’s game, as well.

“Yeah, I think we still have to be able to see some more body of work,” McVay said. “What I did like was what I mentioned to you … to be able to stay together. That’s a tough deal when you have the ball [and] when you turn it over a handful of times. It was [a tough situation]. He kind of mentioned it in the postgame [interviews] to you guys where he thought he was seeing some things and then the mistakes ended up being pretty costly but he just kept playing. He kept fighting. The guys kept believing around him. I was really impressed with the resilience that he demonstrated.

“We do need to take better care of the football. That’s a very important thing. All of those are very correctable and really in a lot of them, it’s not necessarily with the exception … well, a couple of them were bad decisions and then a couple of them were just missed the way that you want to throw … make the type of layered throw. but you’re going to the right spot. [These are] all things that we can learn from. He has to continue to improve and we’re still in evaluation mode.”