Rams GM Les Snead shared some details about quarterback Stetson Bennett’s absence for most of the 2023 season.
Bennett, a two-time national champion quarterback with Georgia, missed most of his rookie season after being placed on the reserve/non-football injury list in September, and the Rams have been quiet about his absence.
“I know this: Last year was very beneficial for him. I think he took advantage of that year away from the game,” Snead said in a recent interview with News 19. “You know what, he’s an exhausted human being based on everything he had done. Let’s just take it as an individual — to walk on, to go to JUCO, to come back, to turn down small schools, say ‘I’m going to try to do this Georgia thing.’
“To win a job, then to win the thing, and then to determine, ‘I’m going to come back.’ And when you come back, it’s really win it again or you failed. And that does take a toll on a human being, so I was jacked for Stetson to be able to take that moment and breathe a little bit.”
Snead said Bennett has been at the Rams’ offseason program “from the start” and that the quarterback is “doing his thing.”
The Rams’ OTAs started May 20 and run through June 6 on select dates before a mandatory minicamp from June 10-12.
Bennett was a walk-on at Georgia and 2017, but never played a snap after Justin Fields committed to Georgia in 2018.
He then transferred to Jones College before returning to Georgia in 2019, when the Bulldogs needed a backup for Jake Fromm because Fields left for Ohio State.
Bennett led Georgia to two consecutive titles and was named the offensive MVP in the championship game wins over Alabama and TCU, before the Rams selected him in the fourth round (No. 128 overall) of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said Bennett “had a good look in his eyes” when he participated in the team’s offseason program last month.
“He’s been attentive in the meetings,” McVay said at the time.
Last season started on an odd note for Bennett.
The 26-year-old quarterback, who was expected to be Matthew Stafford’s backup last season, was ruled out with a shoulder injury before a Week 1 matchup versus the Seahawks.
McVay said that he preferred to keep the details of Bennett’s absence “in house” at the time.
“There are certain things that I think are a little bit bigger and more important, and out of respect for the particulars and the specifics want to be able to keep it in-house and that’s where I’d like to leave it please,” the Super Bowl-winning coach said.
Bennett was arrested for public intoxication in Dallas in January 2023, shortly after Georgia’s national title win versus TCU that month.
The Rams open the 2024 season against the Lions in Detroit on Sept. 8 in a playoff rematch.
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