Sean McVay says Jimmy Garoppolo won't play against the Chargers, stresses the importance of reps for Stetson Bennett

As the Los Angeles Rams prepare for this week’s preseason game against the Chargers, they will not Jimmy Garoppolo. Sean McVay confirmed that he will not participate in the matchup that is taking place as he prepares to serve a ban for two games for the violation of the The NFL Doping policy.

That means Stetson Bennett will get some looks under center in the game behind Matthew Stafford. In fact, that is intentional.

McVay said Bennett's appearances were one reason Garoppolo did not play on Saturday. McVay said he has not yet decided whether that will also be the case in the final preseason game against the Houston Texans.

“He won’t,” McVay said via Professional football talks Mike Florio, on whether Garoppolo would play. “I think it's important to get Stetson [Bennett] these reps. Jimmy got a lot of work yesterday and I thought that was really good for him. He got even more than we thought because Matthew [Stafford] participated in the first few periods. I thought both guys did a great job.

“Jimmy has played a lot of football. I think it's important for Stetson to get those reps. Whether we take the same approach for the third preseason game or not, [we] I didn’t notice that.”

Bennett had an interesting day last week in the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys. He completed 24 of 38 passes for 224 yards, but threw interceptions. However, found some magic in the fourth quarter, Miller Forrestal for the game-deciding touchdown.

When asked if Stetson Bennett will be the QB2 while Garoppolo serves his suspension, Sean McVay said he must see more before a decision is made. This probably also increases the importance of Saturday's game.

“Yeah, I think we need to see more work,” McVay said. “What I liked was what I mentioned to you … being able to stay together. That's a hard thing to do when you have the ball. [and] if you turn it over a few times. It was [a tough situation]He somehow mentioned it in the debriefing [interviews] to you guys where he thought he saw a few things and the mistakes ended up being pretty costly, but he just kept playing. He kept fighting. The guys around him kept believing in him. I was really impressed with the resilience he showed.

“We've got to take better care of the football. That's a very important thing. All of that is something that can be corrected, and in many cases it's not necessarily the case, with the exception of… well, a couple were bad decisions and a couple were just not the way you want to throw… make a layered throw. But you go to the right spot. [These are] all things we can learn from. He needs to continue to improve and we are still in evaluation mode.”