Rams planning to have reserve QB at offseason workouts

It is not clear what led Bennett off the Rams’ roster in September, but in January, Sean McVay stopped short of guaranteeing the two-time national championship-winning quarterback would be with the team in 2024. 

GM Les Snead provided an update on Bennett from the league meetings on Monday, indicating (via the Los Angeles Times’ Gary Klein) that the Rams expect the reserve QB to be with them for offseason workouts. Bennett has been preparing for Rams workouts in Dallas.

The Rams targeted Bennett as a potential long-term Stafford backup last year, drafting him in the fourth round. The team had done extensive scouting on a player that, despite his status as a multiyear Georgia starter during the most dominant stretch in that program’s history, was not on early-round draft radars. 

Bennett, who began his time at Georgia as a walk-on before spending time at a junior college, will also turn 27 later this year. That obviously would put him on track to begin his career later than most QBs in NFL history, but the prospect of Bennett being ready to resume his career is certainly encouraging for the Rams.

A route to Bennett being the Rams’ QB2 does not appear to exist right now. The team gave Jimmy Garoppolo a one-year, $4.5M deal to replace Carson Wentz as Stafford’s backup. (The team also retained reserve Dresser Winn via a futures contract.)

 Stafford’s injury history made the acquisition of a veteran backup rather important, and Bennett’s NFI placement last year qualifies him as an unreliable option. But the Rams hope to see more of the former SEC standout soon.

Elsewhere on the Rams’ roster, the previously mentioned Ernest Jones extension talks do not appear to have brought progress. Snead said the team is not planning to extend the contract-year linebacker in 2024. 

“We prioritized spending our resources on additions rather than re-signing from within,” Snead said, via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop.

GM-speak generally preaches the inverse of this strategy, making it interesting Snead would indicate months in advance the Rams were not planning to extend Jones. 

The former third-round pick has shown improvement, putting together his best season in 2023. But the Rams have a history — during the McVay years, at least — of letting linebackers and safeties fetch their second contracts elsewhere. Among linebackers, Cory Littleton‘s 2020 free-agency exit best represents this strategy.

The team’s previous blueprint featured a host of stars coming in, and their contracts made hitting on Day 2 and Day 3 rookies paramount. 

Jones has become one of those hits, but as of now, he will be looking to audition for other teams — although the Rams still retain exclusive negotiating rights until March 2025 — rather than being the focus of 2024 extension talks.