There is something people find endlessly fascinating about Stetson Bennett, more specifically about what caused the Los Angeles Rams to move their 2023 fourth-round rookie quarterback to the reserve/non-football injury list last September.
The organization has opened up about its perspective on the situation, but as head coach Sean McVay put it, “There are certain things that I think are a little bit bigger and more important, and out of respect for the particulars and the specifics want to be able to keep it in-house and that’s where I’d like to leave it.”
But the questions will continue to come regardless of previous answers given. Most recently TJ Callaway of the Unreserved Podcast asked Bennett a simple version of the questions he and the Rams have received since he made his return to the team for spring practices.
Los Angeles Rams QB Went Home in 2023
“Where have you been?”
His question caused shared laughter.
Then Bennett’s initial response was even more simple, “Home.”
Bennett expanded, “I went home for a minute. Kind of had to clear my head. I don’t know, it was a bunch of everything all at once it felt like.”
Bennett went on to describe the mixed emotions and the pressures of his final two seasons leading Georgia to back-to-back national championships.
“I feel like everybody kind of… I’d say after the first [national championship] people wanted me to leave… somewhere in the second natty season,” he said. “The whole first national championship season I was not certain of myself… I was on the field because if not you’ll get run over, but as far as asserting myself as the starting quarterback on the Georgia Bulldogs, but it was very much so that feels like a big pile of [s–t].”
Ultimately, Bennett wants to get back with the team. He said in May it was “great to get back to football, it’s what I love.”
In May, Rams general manager Les Snead attributed Bennett’s absence to the quarterback’s physical and mental exhaustion following an arduous collegiate career resulting in his draft selection. Snead characterized Bennett as “an exhausted human” who benefitted from a sabbatical to rejuvenate.
“I know this: Last year was very beneficial for him. I think he took advantage of that year away from the game,” Snead said in an interview. “You know what, he’s an exhausted human being based on everything he had done. Let’s just take it as an individual — to walk on, to go to JUCO, to come back, to turn down small schools, say ‘I’m going to try to do this Georgia thing.’
“To win a job, then to win the thing, and then to determine, ‘I’m going to come back.’ And when you come back, it’s really win it again or you failed. And that does take a toll on a human being, so I was jacked for Stetson to be able to take that moment and breathe a little bit.”
In addition to Bennett, the Rams also brought on Jimmy Garoppolo in free agency. They signed him to a one-year $3.2 million contract. Bennett will likely serve as the Rams’ backup quarterback behind Matthew Stafford for at least the first two weeks of the season while Garoppolo serves a suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
