Could the Rams sign a former divisional rival as insurance for Matthew Stafford?

Former Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy was released Monday in what looks like a tanking move from Arizona, but he could be a perfect fit for the Los Angeles Rams as an upgrade to backup Matthew Stafford this season.

The Rams had to suffer through some rough games in 2022. While bad offensive line play didn’t help the situation, the Rams lack of quarterback depth was fully on display with former LA quarterbacks, John Wolford and Bryce Perkins, looking woefully inexperienced filling in for Matthew Stafford.

Things got a little better once veteran Baker Mayfield joined the team, and it begs the question, with LA potentially going into another season with an inexperienced backup in rookie Stetson Bennett, should they look into bringing in a veteran once again on the off chance Stafford and the offensive line do not hold up?

McCoy filled in about as good as a backup could for Kyler Murray over the last two years. He is familiar with Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay from their time together in Washington and also has a win against the Rams under his belt, defeating LA 27-17 in week 10 of last season.

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McCoy, was selected by Cleveland in 2010 during the same draft as quarterbacks Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow and Jimmy Clausen. While the former Ram, Sam Bradford, had a few good years in the league, injuries completely derailed his NFL journey, and it’s genuinely hard not to argue that McCoy has gone on to have the best career out of all of the quarterbacks in the 2010 class.

He’s a solid game manager, and has a similar skill set to another former division rival, previous 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo. Both have less than ideal arm strength but good accuracy and can execute an offense effectively. McVay and LA run a similar offense to the Niners, so it’s hard not to imagine that McCoy could thrive with the Rams if he needed to come in at some point in the season.

With Stetson Bennett having a rough preseason, the Rams could opt to bring in another veteran quarterback for some extra insurance behind Stafford, who missed eight games last year due to injury and is only getting older. The offensive line should be considerably better this season, given the historic amount of injuries and lineup changes Los Angeles had to deal with in 2022, but even so, Stafford is not a young quarterback anymore and the Rams probably do not want to put all their eggs in the Stetson Bennett basket just quite yet.

In no way do I think LA should move completely off Stetson Bennett. There have been talks of moving him to the practice squad but personally I think he would get signed by another team before the Rams could get him back just due to some of the flash plays he’s made in practice and the first preseason game against the Chargers. With teams like Arizona planning to go into the season with Josh Dobbs as their quarterback, there’s a real chance a rookie QB like Bennett could get signed to someone else’s 53 man roster.

Also LA invested a 4th round pick in Bennett, that alone should keep him on the roster given that we’ve only seen him in three preseason games. I still think Bennett is worth trying to develop, however the idea of him being the solo number two quarterback is a bit unsettling. Bringing in Colt McCoy, who honestly plays very similar to Bennett with maybe a tad less mobility, could be the perfect guy to mentor the young player and specifically help with his knack of turning the ball over.

If Stafford was to go down, I would feel good about McCoy going under center for a game or two. He would bring stability to the backup quarterback position that the Rams have not seen since Jared Goff was backed up by Case Keenum in 2016.