For better or for worse, Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay should be credited for popularizing the strategy of resting players in the preseason. While that has gained broad acceptance across the league, the team’s decision to rest players in Week 18 has garnered a good amount of criticism leading up to the game.
And that is happening for one big reason. Unlike preseason games, the Ram Week 18 game against the Seattle Seahawks is meaningful. It will, in part, determine the final playoff seeding — thus setting the Wild Card matchups.
Bill Belichick At Odds With Rams Week 18 Strategy
One of the most prominent voices against resting players is six-time Super Bowl champion head coach, Bill Belichick — who shared his views on the dilemma during the latest episode of the Let’s Go! podcast.
“I mean, you can only have seven inactive guys,” Belichick said, as transcribed by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. “Who are they? And it’s tough to go to your team and say, ‘Well, we’re not gonna play you guys over here, but the rest of you get out there. We don’t really care about you. If you get hurt, that doesn’t matter, but these six or seven guys we’re going to protect.’
“You can’t say that to the team. That doesn’t resonate well at all, nor should it. So I always had a hard time with that one. Now, if a guy was fighting an injury and everybody understood that the guy was fighting an injury, OK, that’s one thing. But to just say, ‘Well, you guys are important, but you other guys aren’t, we don’t care what happens to you. Get out there and play.’ That’s not a message I could ever send to the team. Even though there were people in the organization that wanted me to send that, I just couldn’t do it.”
The Rams announced on Friday that most of the offense would not play on Sunday, including Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, Kevin Dotson, and Alaric Jackson — who are all ostensibly healthy. Rob Havenstein will also miss the game, but due to a shoulder injury.
The Rams are 7.5-point home-field underdogs as a result.
They also announced that Jimmy Garoppolo, and Blake Courm, would start in the offensive backfield with Jonah Jackson at right guard, and Joe Noteboom at left tackle. Warren McClendon will presumably fill in for Havenstein at right tackle.