Sean McVay remains ambiguous about the status of Joe Noteboom and starting OL

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, and head coach Sean McVay met with the media on Wednesday after their joint practice against the Denver Broncos. McVay responded to more questions about Joseph Noteboom, whether he’s a starter or not and who could be L.A.’s five offensive linemen, but fans will have more questions than answers.

The Rams will meet with the Broncos again on Thursday and then play their preseason finale on Saturday.

I am doing my best to transcribe these quotes and hear these questions, there are not always subtitles, but we do the best we can with what we have! Lets get to it.

Stafford’s interview starts by him being asked how practice was, and they ask about Cooper Kupp being back on the practice field too.

“It was great, he (Kupp) did a nice job today, it was a good day of practice. Just like everyone one of them, there’s a few I want back or you know we can look at...I thought Coop looked great.”

Stafford goes on to say that the Denver Broncos defense is more what they are used to facing as opposed to the Las Vegas Raiders defense. Stafford is asked if there is anything he wanted to see or do differently than last week.

“Last week was a good week of work too. You know, it’s just go and do some of the same stuff we’ve been doing just try it out against a little bit of a different style defense and see what we like...it’s just like show up and go play.”

I am reading into the above quote as Stafford saying Maxx Crosby made life tough on the offense last week. I don’t think the Broncos have anyone like Maxx Crosby.

Funnily enough later in the interview Stafford is asked if anyone was yelling “sack, sack, sack” as much as Crosby during these joint practices with the Broncos. Stafford responds smiling:

“Not as quickly as he (Maxx Crosby) was. He was always just saying it even though he was getting blocked sometimes, but it’s always fun...I can’t imagine coming out to football practice and never touching the ball so they gotta be jacked up about something.”

So 100% I think Stafford was glad to get a break from the Raiders defense this week. Comical response too.

“I feel really good...when I’m out there I’m feeling great.”

The health questions for Stafford will not be going away anytime soon.

Sean McVay’s portion of the interview had some closed captions and this made my life so much easier.

The coach is asked about Joe Noteboom and Logan Bruss being back out at practice. McVay doesn’t offer too much insight beyond they are doing drills, the team is being cautious with any hurt players, more or less, but it’s good to see guys get reps.

McVay is then asked if Noteboom has shown, when healthy, to be one of the best starting five offensive lineman during camp.

“I think he’s played that way during camp...to get better at football you have to be able to play football. We want to be able to find that five.”

The the head coach adds this as well.

“All we can do is continue to work with the guys that are available.”

McVay expresses that Noteboom has had a good camp, but I think these quotes are alluding that the lineman’s injury (injuries?) are potentially getting in the way of him being considered one of the starting five offensive lineman come Week One. Fascinating situation to monitor.

McVay is asked about having concerns about basically not knowing who the starting five offensive lineman are given that we are so close to the regular season.

“Is it ideal? No. But it’s not something that I’m gonna waste any sort of time on. When those guys are back, we’ll continue to coach them up. But in the meantime, we’ve got minimal opportunities to be able to get better. It thought it seemed like we took a step in the right direction.”

I found that quote deeply concerning. McVay says he’s not going to waste time on this but they are going to need to figure this out, so I actually thought that was an interesting response. It did not seem like the usual coach speak.

To me that says this team is not ready and it’s almost game time. A lot can happen in the next couple weeks and McVay can just be saying this to fire up the team. He is chewing gum like Pete Carroll ,so it’s fair to say LA’s coach may have been in a mood during this interview.

“There was some good stuff, there was some thing we can execute at a better level...this is practice.”

It’s only practice, for now.

I still believe in this guy. He’s a damn good coach. Win or lose, this year will only make him better.