Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams’ coaches are pleased with the way their rookies have performed in practice this summer, led by defensive standouts Jared Verse and Braden Fiske. Blake Corum has been impressive, too, as has Kamren Kinchens in the last week or so.
For that reason, the Rams might keep their top rookies out of action this weekend in the preseason opener. McVay was asked Thursday if the Rams’ top draft picks will play against the Cowboys this weekend and he isn’t sure what approach they’ll take yet.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” McVay said. “Those are the things that we’ll talk about over the next couple of days. Obviously, I made a mention of the guys that have played in this league. They won’t (play). The guys that you guys could probably project, OK, are they playing or are they not? It is important work though. We did that with all of our guys last year. Those guys did play. We’ll continue to evaluate and we’ll make the decision that we feel like is best. It might not be best for everybody, but I’ll always try to make the decisions that I think are best for our team.”
The Rams did give their top rookies playing time last preseason, but it was fairly limited. Steve Avila, Puka Nacua, Byron Young and Kobie Turner all played limited snaps in the team’s three exhibition games, mostly to avoid any possible injuries before the season began.
Verse and Fiske are both going to be key pieces on defense and are expected to be Day 1 starters, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see McVay hold them out. As for Corum and Kinchens, they project more as backups, so they could get opportunities this month.
McVay is going to do what he feels is best for the team, regardless of how badly everyone wants to see these young players on the field.