Rams might not have a healthy backup behind Matthew Stafford right now

Buried behind the news on Wednesday that Cooper Kupp could be placed on injured reserve is Sean McVay’s reveal that the Los Angeles Rams might not have a healthy backup quarterback behind Matthew Stafford right now. Rookie Stetson Bennett’s “right should is bothering him,” according to McVay, which wouldn’t be good because as far as I know the quarterback throws the football with his right arm and shoulder.

That would mean that not only is Stafford playing without his top receiver, not only is he playing behind an offensive line that likely has one experienced starter, not only is he starting the year off with a new offensive coordinator, but the veteran quarterback may not have his backup. That might be more of a Rams problem than a Stafford problem, in either case it is a situation that nobody was expecting and could lead to Brett Rypien getting called up on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

The Rams chose to keep two quarterbacks on the roster, Stafford and Bennett, and re-signed Rypien to the practice squad after cutting him. With the third quarterback rule, the Rams may have already planned to elevate Rypien from the practice squad on Sunday and to have him ready in case the team needed a third quarterback.

As noted in the comments, the Rams may need to use one of their 53-man spots on Rypien in order for him to be available. The team could choose to put Kupp on IR as a way to elevate Rypien, but they could also elevate him from the practice squad to the active gameday roster. L.A. still doesn’t have a kicker on the 53-man roster for Sunday yet.

If Stafford were to be injured and miss time this season, it could be that Rypien would be starting and that L.A. would need to sign yet another quarterback to be his backup.

Bennett didn’t have the best preseason and it was always going to be a sticky situation if the Rams actually had him as the second option behind a quarterback who missed half of last season. Now it seems like McVay is setting up the possibility that Bennett won’t be ready for the start of the year and that Rypien could find his way towards being Stafford’s backup, if not a free agent or trade acquisition such as Carson Wentz.