Things Just Got INTERESTING For The Rams...

Things just got a little more complicated for the Los Angeles Rams. We are talking about the QB2 situation, how Stetson Bennett played in preseason game number two, how complicated he made the QB2 situation, and some names of players who made it really hard for the Rams to move on from them all on today's episode of the Rams Digest. I'm your host, Joshua Hidon, and before we get too far into today's episode, I want to ask you guys a favor. If you guys are not currently subscribed to the channel, do me a favor and consider pressing that subscribe button now. Right now we sit at about 61.3% of you guys who are coming back for more. You're watching the videos, you like what you see, but you're not pressing that subscribe button. All I'm saying is if you keep coming back for more and you do like what you see, you like the Rams content, you want more daily Rams content, consider pressing that subscribe button before you go. Helps to support the channel. We are trying to continue to grow this community, grow this Rams channel here on the Rams Digest, so do us a favor. If you like the videos, consider pressing that subscribe button before you go from today's video. See if you like this one too, maybe, and then go ahead and make your decision at the end of today's video. We are talking Rams preseason game number two as of yesterday. I'm recording this on Sunday, August 23rd, so yesterday's game, Rams go up 2-0 in the preseason, obviously playing pretty well there in the preseason thus far. 34-0, they absolutely shut out the New Orleans Saints in this football game, so it kind of brought up the question, right, of how good is this Rams team? Again, we're not seeing the Trent McDuffie's out there, we're not seeing Myles Garrett, we're not seeing Stafford, we're not seeing Puca, Devontae, all of these names that we know the Rams to be, oh this is a Super Bowl contender potentially. They're not just a superstar starters only team. The Rams have depth, the Rams have drafted well, the Rams have built this roster out really well to a point where it's kind of hard. They're gonna have to make some tough decisions coming out for the rest of the offseason, just kind of got to cut some guys down in this roster, but overall this is good news for the Rams, right? They are not just a top-heavy team, they're not top-loaded, they're not just a star-studded team only, and if any of those guys go down, all of a sudden this team might sink with the ship, right? No, this team is built out fully, they are a really deep team all around, and we talked about this last season, we knew that was the case, right? We're worried about Stafford and his injuries, obviously anytime a quarterback gets hurt that would be concerning for your roster, we got to acknowledge that, but at the same time the Rams have built out this roster to a point where adding Myles Garrett and adding Trent McDuffie was huge for them, but they almost, I don't want to say they didn't need those guys, they need those guys 100% on this roster this season to try to win a Super Bowl, but they almost and probably should have went to the Super Bowl, yeah Seahawks fans you can make fun of me saying that, but they almost should have went to the Super Bowl last season and competed and potentially won a Super Bowl last season coming off of Matthew Stafford's MVP run. They didn't do it, it is what it is, we'll move on from that, but it's just that's how good this roster is, so adding those Myles Garrett pieces and Trent McDuffie pieces, it just adds more to it, it's great to see the team is looking like, hey we have a deep roster here on this team currently in the 2026 season, again some tough decisions to be made in terms of what they got to do this offseason, in terms of who they're going to cut, who makes the roster, but we'll get to that later in the video. First we're going to talk about the star of the game Stetson Bennett went out absolutely balled out, he really showed out in his preseason opportunity game two versus the New Orleans Saints and say what you want, the New Orleans Saints are not necessarily the greatest team out there, we 100% get that, but the mobility was a major weapon for Stetson Bennett in that 34-0 victory, he scored two rushing touchdowns in this game, so it shows he's able to escape the pocket, move around, and kind of have an ability that honestly Matthew Stafford at this point in his career does not have, that's a nice sign for Stetson Bennett, he looks pretty good and confident in the pocket throwing the football down the field, but also adds that layer of mobility, it could be very very good for the Rams in terms of if he needs to get out there, that's a new kind of a piece of this offense that isn't there when Matthew Stafford is in, again Stafford is a lot better at everything else than Stetson Bennett is, we're not saying that he's better than Stafford, but adding that key element is going to be important if Stafford does miss any time, it's going to see some differences in what this offense can do I think, and his ability to escape the pockets and make plays with his legs really stood out, it included that eight yard rushing touchdown that was a pretty nice run from him just reading the defense well, taking what the defense gives him and scoring a touchdown, so he really did strengthen his case in this game to be the quarterback too, Bennett played the entire first half completing 19 of 31 passes for 181 yards, adding those two rushing touchdowns, no touchdowns to the air, but definitely had a pretty good game overall, the performance was important because he's genuinely competing with Ty Simpson now for that backup job behind Matthew Stafford, I mean Stetson Bennett really balled out in this game, but I should say Ty Simpson balled out his opportunity versus the Kansas City Chiefs, let's not forget how well the rookie played and everyone was saying oh this is the guy, and now we're excited, now Joshua Feinerschein and I look dumb in terms of how we viewed him coming out of the draft, but look ultimately I'm happy that that Ty Simpson is looking good, I'm happy that Stetson Bennett is looking good, and this is the reason why, you know we talked about I kind of criticized the Rams a little bit for not going out there and getting a consistent good kind of solid backup quarterback, because they knew what they had, we didn't really know just yet, but they knew they had Stetson Bennett, they know what they have in Ty Simpson, the reason why you draft the guy in the first round, you don't just draft them off of vibes, you don't just draft them off of hey we need a quarterback, so let's go get the quarterback, so you got to understand that I need to understand that as well myself, I criticize the Rams for it, but now I'm saying you know what hold on, they obviously know what they're doing better than I do, and so I think maybe they must have just really liked Ty Simpson, the concern for me was don't just draft a quarterback because you need a quarterback, the Rams are like it may seem like that from the outside looking in, but we want really like this kid, and so that is exciting for the Rams, but again Stetson Bennett is kind of really making this a tough conversation, who is going to be your backup quarterback, I mean honestly I'd be happy with either of these guys winning the role, I'm glad there is a competition though, these guys are hungry, they're fighting and competing for this role now, and it's really exciting to see I think from my perspective, so look Bennett showed he can create offense even when the play breaks down, so that's exciting and a positive for him in his development of his career, his performance could create a decision for the Rams, Bennett's strong preseason is making him more valuable and ESPN's Dan Orlovsky even suggested the Falcons could and should trade for a late-round pick for Stetson Bennett, I don't think the Rams would do anything like that, so sorry to Dan Orlovsky for that idea, I'm not seeing that being something the Rams should or even will be interested in, but let's take a look at this game here from the Saints matchup, I want to make sure I pull some stats here as I'm super lagging here, but comparing the numbers here, Ty Simpson had a still a decent performance, 8 for 12 on the day, 73 passing yards, but Stetson Bennett of course really making the game for himself with his performance, 19 of 31, 181 on the day, so I don't think the Rams should consider trading a guy like Stetson Bennett, I don't think they're in a situation where they need to go out and try to trade for a guy for a late-round pick, at this point if Bennett is good and Ty Simpson's good, keep both of them, I told you guys before in the past as well that the Rams are allowed to keep three quarterbacks in the roster without it really counting against their 53-man roster spots, so that is positive, I think the Rams could definitely not trade Stetson Bennett and just keep him on the roster, keep him a part of this team, keep seeing if he can develop as a quarterback and see if the Rams can ultimately have this competition be a positive for them, you want to get the best case scenario out there for the quarterback position and that's if Matthew Stafford has to go down, you got to continue playing football games. A quote here from Twitter, we're pulling this here from Kurt Benkirk's Twitter, I know I'm lagging like crazy on the visuals guys, I apologize, trying to get through this here, but Kurt Benkirk for those who don't know, former backup quarterback in the NFL, he ended up playing like mad in a bunch on social media, so kind of got a little bit of a following through through things like that and he came out and had a lot of experience as a quarterback and as a backup quarterback especially, he says, I think Ty Simpson is a prospect, but Stetson Bennett could have been the Rams QB too for a couple of years now, he actually reminds me of Brock Purdy, just a little bit more athletic, but slightly smaller, I don't want to go ahead and talk about who you think is better, I think some people would argue Stetson Bennett is the better quarterback than Brock Purdy overall for all those 49er hater, hating, loving, Rams loving fans out there, but ultimately, I like this quote here from Kurt Benkirk or this tweet here from Kurt Benkirk, just acknowledging that, yeah, say what you want about the fact that the Rams have Ty Simpson now, ultimately, they really could have allowed Stetson Bennett to have the backup quarterback job for a couple of years now, that's how good he has been and even more credit to him, a lot of people are coming out and really acknowledging, hey, you know what, Stetson Bennett honestly is really showing the flashes here of the learning from a quarterback like Matthew Stafford, every time you sit behind a legend like this, of course, you're going to absorb some knowledge, you're going to absorb some ability and not necessarily like literally like taking his powers or anything, but he does, obviously, sitting behind Stafford for a couple of years has definitely benefited him and we've seen that with some plays, we're going to show you a play right now in just a second that turned a lot of heads and blew a lot of people's minds, especially on social media, but during the Rams preseason win, I think Bennett looked like he made some impressive, that one impressive fourth down throw to Tyler Scott, we're going to show that right now, but it was like a no-look type of pass and those kind of off-kilter kind of off-script throws is really, I think, where it shows that he's learning from a quarterback like Matthew Stafford, someone on Twitter even said, I saw it, I don't have a screenshot for it, but they were like, honestly, if you take off Stetson Bennett's jersey number here, I truly think that he looks like Matthew Stafford, see if I can play this clip for you guys, I hope there's not a bunch of audio here either because I don't think there should be, but let's see, maybe it'll play for you all, maybe not guys, maybe not, I try my best to screen record and get you guys a video of it, but the point is, Stetson Bennett, I'm pretty sure you guys know what the play was, I think you guys see it kind of lagging out here, Stetson Bennett is rolling out, kind of about to get taken out by some defenders, gets hit, gets bumped, throws the ball as he's getting bumped and just a beautiful kind of ball that floats into Tyler Scott's hands and you gotta give him credit, he looked like Matthew Stafford out there and just a really impressive ball from Stetson Bennett, I think those throws kind of what put him ahead of a quarterback like Ty Simpson, nothing against Ty, I think he's obviously a great quarterback right now, a great quarterback prospect for the Rams, great job for the Rams finding him, it looks like he could be a really good quarterback in the NFL, so credit to him for that, but go with the guy who has more experience, go with the guy who's learned more, who's been in the NFL games at times more than obviously Ty Simpson has, and so just kind of go with the experience for now, if throughout the season you think Ty Simpson's ready to take the reins and go ahead and give him that opportunity, but obviously Stetson Bennett so far I think is kind of holding his job down, and by the way, speaking of that Stafford-like throw, this is Stafford's reaction to that throw by Stetson Bennett, yeah, literally just a serious straight face, you know why? Because he couldn't even watch the play, I have a little bit of a bone to pick with the NFL when they do this stuff, why are we interviewing anybody, anybody, not just Matthew Stafford, but why are we interviewing anybody at this point in the in a game, right, why don't you interview him in between quarters, in between timeouts, in between water breaks, commercial commercial timeouts, I've been to football games, you can see a lot of dead time at times, interview them then, and then watch the game live while you're playing the interview back, like I know it sounds a little crazy and wonky the way I'm explaining it, I don't know if that makes any sense, but stop interviewing people in the middle of the game, it's so frustrating, I don't want to see a quarter of the screen taken up when I'm trying to watch the game and all of a sudden, yes, my quarterback, my MVP, Matthew Stafford, we love him, we always want to see him, but I don't really want to see him right now when I'm trying to watch his play, and it was kind of, the play was kind of killed a little bit by Stafford being in the interview, it was like a smaller box you're trying to watch the game on because they're trying to show Stafford, and what, you don't even need to show him, just talk to him, why do we have to see him on the sideline, we don't need to see him there, I got a little heated here, but I just needed to emphasize that, why are we interviewing anybody during the game, it's so frustrating, why are we putting him on the big screen, we don't need a big camera angle of him, whatever, that's kind of, I digress, but the point is, Stafford wasn't able to see it, but it was a very Stafford-esque play, so shout out to Stetson Bennett for learning from the MVP, learning from one of the best quarterbacks of all time, and kind of just showing those flashes already in the preseason, excited to see that from Stetson Bennett for sure. All right, moving on, before we move on from that actually, I do want to ask you guys really quick, what do you guys think, who should the Rams backup quarterback be for the 2026-2027 NFL season, are you on the Stetson Bennett train, are you on the give the rookie a chance, let him be the quarterback train, what are your thoughts down below in the comment section, of course all of us are hoping that Stafford just has a beautiful, healthy season for the Los Angeles Rams, but what are your thoughts down below in the comment section, who's your QBU 2, is it Stetson Bennett or is it Ty Simpson, decide down below in the comment section, you can like both, you don't have to choose one, hate the other, but just let me know your thoughts down below in the comment section, who do you think should be the backup quarterback for Matthew Stafford for the next season for the Rams, let me know your thoughts down below in the comment section. All right, moving on from that, some interesting names to discuss really, really quickly, the Rams showed a lot in their preseason matchup versus the New Orleans Saints, and one thing I said at the top of this episode, they showed a lot of depth, and the depth is key there, the Rams have some depth on offense and defense, so much so that everyone is kind of going crazy over Wesley Bailey, he had 10 pressures, a sack, a forced fumble, and four quarterback hits, phenomenal game and really fighting for a roster spot is Wesley Bailey, it's hard to imagine the Rams don't have him on the roster, but truthfully it's kind of a long shot for Wesley Bailey to make the roster, not because of him and how he's producing, but because of what the Rams currently have on the roster, they have a pretty deep defensive line, don't forget that Myles Garrett's now on the roster, you still got Brayden Fisk, you still got Byron Young, you still got Josiah Stewart, a lot of names on this roster, it could be tough for a guy like Wesley Bailey to make it, but he is making a very strong push and a very strong case to making this Rams roster in this offseason, so that's exciting for him for sure, but could be a name that might not make the roster, you let me know your thoughts down below in the comment section, he's one of your guys that you need to be on the roster, let me know how you feel about that, the Rams possibly moving on from him, CJ Daniels probably solidifying himself on this Rams roster, I talked about how tough it was going to be this preseason to make a name for himself and he said, you know what Josh, it's not that hard because I'm just that good, three catches on 13 targets for 68 yards, I think he solidified himself, even if you want to call him the receiver five, receiver six, whatever, he has solidified himself to be on this Rams roster, he will be a receiver on this Rams roster, will he be a receiver three, will he see a bunch of targets for Matthew Stafford, probably not, unless an injury happens and knock on wood, it doesn't, I think he will definitely be on this roster, back end of the roster, playing a little bit of special teams, but fighting his way to potentially make an NFL roster at some point, obviously hopefully with the Rams in the next couple years, shout out to CJ Daniels for what he's done so far with his work with the Rams, hey if he starts balling out and balls out for the Rams in the regular season, that's exciting as well, so hopefully he gets some opportunities and makes the most of them and then last but not least, the running game is another conversation to have or to be had, the Rams running backs played really, really well in this game, Jordan Waters and Jarquiz Hunter combined for 122 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, so shout out to the run game for playing really well, I think Jarquiz Hunter will likely make the roster over Jordan Waters, just based off of kind of where he's been at this point in his career and what he's done for the Rams thus far, but definitely shout out to Jordan Waters for obviously pushing and making a name for himself as well, having some really good aggressive runs for himself in this preseason, so overall look, Stetson Bennett played really well in the preseason, a lot of other guys fighting for a roster spot, making a name for themselves, the biggest thing is the Rams are showing and proving to the rest of the world the way they run their organization is the right way, they are doing such great things all around on this football team, all around on this roster and how they built this roster because they have depth, they have their top heavyweight talent as well, they are all around a very good football team and we're excited to see the Rams compete for a Super Bowl this upcoming season, other than that, that is going to do it for me on today's episode of the Rams Digest, I'm your host Joshua Gidon and I'm out.