declined to comment<\/a> on whether the workout actually occurred. The spokesman deferred comment to coach Sean McVay, when he next meets with reporters on Monday.<\/p>\nThen, after the game, assistant head coach\/pass game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant (who played the role of head coach for the annual preseason Battle of L.A.) was equally secretive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point in time, anything regarding Mr. Stafford, I\u2019m going to wait for Coach McVay to address you guys on Monday,\u201d Pleasant told reporters<\/p>\n
Pleasant wouldn\u2019t even say whether Stafford was present for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything regarding Mr. Stafford, I\u2019m going to let Sean go ahead and regard that,\u201d Pleasant said. \u201cTo be honest with you, I was so tapped into the ones that had jerseys on, honestly, that\u2019s what I\u2019d say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quarterback Stetson Bennett got the memo, too. Asked whether he saw Stafford on the sideline during the game, Bennett said, \u201cI was so locked in each and every snap. I didn\u2019t really look too closely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The circumstances require a closer look at what\u2019s going on. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no magic to Monday. McVay can hold a conference call whenever he wants, if there\u2019s something to say about Stafford. (And there apparently is.) Alternatively, a statement could be issued. <\/p>\n
Whatever the situation may be, it\u2019s a strange pivot from transparency to secrecy for the Rams. And it suggests that the situation is far from ideal.<\/p>\n
Frankly, it invites speculation that the Rams may think they need to find a quarterback to compete with and\/or supplant Jimmy Garoppolo as the starter, and that they plan to use Sunday to try to do a deal with someone else, before the world knows they may be desperate.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an extreme explanation, I know. But that\u2019s the kind of thing that would justify the Rams\u2019 abrupt pivot from talking about Stafford to sealing the vault on their starting quarterback until Monday.<\/p>\n
If Stafford\u2019s season is suddenly in jeopardy, a trade for Kirk Cousins becomes an obvious possibility. McVay served as the offensive coordinator in Washington from 2014 through 2016, when Cousins was the starter. And McVay remains a big believer in Cousins.<\/p>\n
As is 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. Which would make the Rams-Niners rivalry (and competition for the NFC West crown) far more interesting.<\/p>\n
For now, the most interesting thing is Stafford\u2019s status. The Rams\u2019 are being strategically silent. Unless they decide to say or to leak something today, we\u2019ll find out why that\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a strange few weeks for the Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford. And it got stranger than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-89893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}