Sean McVay’s response to Stetson Bennett being placed on NFI list and more

Rams head coach Sean McVay met with the media on Wednesday for another mid-week press conference and he spoke about Stetson Bennett, the 49ers, and L.A.’s win over the Seattle Seahawks.

He starts the press conference off on a seemingly serious note as Stetson Bennett was recently placed on the Non-Football Injury list and it is McVay’s response that might make this bigger news.

“That’s all I’m gonna say and I really hope that you can please respect my wishes in regards to keeping that in house. I understand you have a job to do but there’s certain things that I think are a little bigger and more important and out of respect for the particulars and the specifics want to be able to keep it in house.” That’s where I’d like to leave it please.”

The coach seems to be pressed again and replies “Come on, man, please.” As in: Please leave it alone. HIs voice seems strained and it’s a tense moment for the usually very positive head coach. What McVay is not willing to say makes this seem very serious. Is it serious? We don’t know. Hopefully everyone is alright and can move forward in a positive way.

McVay then called the 49ers “arguably” one of the best teams in football, giving credit to the job his friend Kyle Shanahan has done in San Francisco.

“Best part about football is they enjoyed that, and now what an unbelievable challenge that we have moving forward, against arguably, you know, one of the best teams in the league a lot of people would say it is the best team in the league and they’ve got great players, great coaches, great scheme, they’re checking all the boxes in a lot of ways. So, think out guys are excited about the challenge, but I was really pleased with that group as a whole for sure.”

The team was obviously thrilled about their win over the Seattle Seahawks, but it’s time to prepare for the 49ers. Will LA’s gameplan be similar to Seattle, can we expect LA to utilize a similar rushing attack as they did last Sunday?

“We ran more than maybe you guy had been accustomed to, whether that ends up being the way that we approach it this week, there’s always a way that we want to be able to try to figure out what’s the best way to approach week in and week out and what fits our players. There was some things we didn’t nearly as well as we would’ve liked.”

There is always room for improvement but overall the Rams offense was productive. They converted on third down, they had long drives, will they be able to replicate that type of success against what is considered a superior defense?

“Efficiency particularly on early downs has to be a lot better if we expect to be the caliber of offense that we want to be.”

LA will want to avoid third and long or else Nick Bosa may just tee off on Matthew Stafford. The currently healthy Rams quarterback doesn’t want that, and neither does his team. Every now again the Rams will need to be able to convert on third down and they may even do well on third down overall, but every NFL team wants to stay ahead of the sticks. Especially against a team that might have one of the best defensive lines in the league. The Niners looked in midseason form when they absolutely crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.

“You gotta be able to go and execute. These are great players, this is a great scheme. They’ve got a new coordinator in Steve Wilks, but there’s still a lot of continuity and you saw a lot of similar things that have made them the best. Especially on that side of the ball, and man did the look good in both of those other phases as well. So, it was a complete team performance that they put together. I wasn’t surprised at all. We know, you know how special they are and it’s gonna be a great challenge and I think, you know, we’re continuing to figure out, alright how do we put together a great week of preparation, and then ultimately how do we give our guys a chance to go to play to the best of their ability and go shoot their shot on Sunday. it’s gonna be fun.”

The Rams and 49ers have a storied rivalry and it will be fun to see a new chapter as Aaron Donald and Brock Purdy face off for the first time. There will be plenty of rookies who will be experiencing this rivalry for the first time. There are plenty of veterans who may have been waiting for this game since the schedule was announced. It really will come down to coaching, being able to execute, make adjustments and learn on the fly. This 49ers team will certainly have some surprises for LA. Maybe LA will have some surprises of their own. One thing we can almost count on is that this game is going to be a tough test for the Rams.

“It’s gonna take everybody playing at their best.”

Will Sean McVay and his staff have this team ready to go in a few days? Tune in Sunday to find out.

I still am looking forward to hearing from new Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur at some point. The offense looked much improved from last year, after one game, and that had a lot to do with a healthy Matthew Stafford. One wonders how much of an impact LaFleur is having? Maybe that’s next time on McVay’s press conference.