Are Rams better at backup quarterback with Stetson Bennett than Brett Rypien?

Are Rams better at backup quarterback with Stetson Bennett than Brett Rypien?

Entering the 2024 offseason, there were a lot of questions surrounding the Los Angeles Rams quarterback room behind Matthew Stafford. Following a disastrous experience with Brett Rypien starting a game last season, it seemed as though head coach Sean McVay and co. had learned their lesson.

In a Week 9 game against the Green Bay Packers, the Rams were forced to start Rypien. The Rams offense scored three points while Rypien went 13-for-28 for 130 yards with an interception. He finished the game with an EPA per play of -0.336.

Almost immediately, the Rams went out and signed Carson Wentz for the rest of the season and it was a move that paid off. Wentz ended up leading the Rams to a win against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 18.

Of course, all of that only happened because Stetson Bennett missed the entirety of the 2024 season. The Rams drafted Bennett in the fourth round and after going through the entire offseason program, the former Georgia quarterback took a leave of absence with issues that have been described as being “under the mental health umbrella.”

Coming into the offseason, it was unclear whether or not the Rams would draft another quarterback to sit and learn behind Stafford as Bennett’s future with the team remained up in the air. In the end, the Rams decided to sign Jimmy Garoppolo who brought experience in the McVay/Shanahan system and had shown he can win games in the NFL.

The only issue with the Garoppolo signing was the quarterback is set to miss the first two games of the NFL season. Due to violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

That means for the first two games of the season, the Rams will be relying on Stetson Bennett as the backup quarterback. The question, however, is whether or not the Rams are in a better place with Bennett with their backup than they were with Rypien a year ago before opting to bring in a veteran.

Of course, this whole discussion could end up being mute and ideally that is the case. In an ideal world, Matthew Stafford doesn’t have any injury scares in the first two weeks. However, that doesn’t mean that coaches and fans won’t be holding their breath every time he drops back to pass in hopes that he doesn’t take a big hit or his hand doesn’t graze a lineman’s helmet.

When it comes to Bennett, the only time that anyone has been able to see him in live NFL-game action has been during the preseason. Due to Bennett’s strong first impression in his preseason debut, it seems to be forgotten how poorly he played in the next two games.

Bennett started the preseason with a strong performance in which he went 17-for-29 with 191 yards and a touchdown. However, over the next two games, he went just 19-for-33 for 156 yards and three interceptions. That included a disastrous 4-for-9 for 14 yards and two interception outing in the finale against the Denver Broncos.

This is a situation in which multiple things can be true at the same time:

1. Given Garoppolo’s experience in the system, he was likely the correct signing at quarterback this offseason.
2. Brett Rypien was not very good in his lone outing last year against the Packers.
3. Stetson Bennett doesn’t give a lot of confidence if he has to enter a game in 2024.

It’s one thing to say that Bennett will have a full summer of work and that it’s his second offseason in the system. However, he is also playing catchup. It’s not as if Bennett was in meeting rooms last season, taking in the offense and watching from the sidelines. He wasn’t even in the building.

The Brett Rypien experience last year was a disaster. However, the Stetson Bennett experience in the preseason wasn’t much better. It’s true that it was only the preseason and Bennett wasn’t necessarily playing with the starting offense. At the same time, the tendencies such as being late on reads and staring down wide receivers became a consistent theme.

Among quarterbacks with at least 25 drop backs in the preseason last year, Bennett had the most turnover-worthy plays with six and his 8.5 turnover-worthy play percentage was the second-highest behind only Matt Barkley. Bennett’s passer rating of 31.9 in the final two games of the preseason was nearly 17 points worse than the next lowest quarterback.

Rypien’s performance against the Packers in Week 9 was a traumatizing experience for fans. It was the worst quarterback outing for the Rams since Week 17 in 2022 when Baker Mayfield went 11-for-19 for 132 yards with an EPA per play of -0.411. At least in Mayfield’s case, that came at the end of a lost season and the offensive line was more than decimated at that point.

Still, it’s important to contextualize the Rypien outing, especially when compared to Bennett’s preseason performances. It’s easy to have the mindset of “how can it possibly get worse than that?” However, Bennett has given no reason to believe that it can’t, especially taking a year off from football.

When Bennett was drafted last year, it was thought that he could be the team’s long-term backup and potentially a bridge-quarterback post-Matthew Stafford. The situation last year threw a wrench into all of that.

The good news obviously is that Bennett is back with the team. It’s hard to know exactly what that looks like and how Bennett will perform until he takes the field in a live-game setting. However, McVay talked about Bennett’s overall improvement during OTAs. Said the Rams head coach,

“I was really pleased with his overall improvement, his command, like I mentioned, his attention in the meetings and then when he got his opportunities, whether it was in some 7-on-7 or even in some of the team periods, they’re taking steps in the right direction. Been really pleased with both those guys.”

In a best case scenario, Bennett is able to remain with the team and learn how to be a backup behind Garoppolo. In a perfect world, Bennett is able to hit a Garoppolo level and be that stable backup and bridge quarterback. However, after the last year, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done for Bennett to get to that point.

Again, Garoppolo was likely the right signing when it came to adding a veteran backup quarterback to the roster behind Stafford. At the same time, the Rams made their bed and will have to lay in it. Ideally, none of this matters and Stafford plays not only the first two games, but the entire season unscathed. However, it is within the realm of possibilities that this conversation becomes very relevant.