Matthew Stafford Camp Update — August 31: Rested All the Way to Melbourne
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Stafford sat out the preseason finale with all the regular starters and finishes the exhibition season with zero game snaps, by design. He is one of three quarterbacks on the initial fifty-three, and as of August twenty-seventh the team had not determined whether Stetson Bennett or rookie Ty Simpson backs him up.
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Matthew Stafford's preseason is over, and it contained zero game snaps. He was rested for Thursday's finale against the Chargers along with Stetson Bennett and all the regular starters, per Adam Wells at Bleacher Report — a 20 to 18 win that completed the first undefeated preseason under Sean McVay, per Blaine Grisak at Sports Illustrated. For a coach managing a 38-year-old toward an opener in Melbourne on September tenth, that zero reads as it has all month: plan, not concern.
Cut day put him atop a quarterback room of three — Stafford, Bennett and rookie Ty Simpson, per Mykell Mathieu at The Sporting Tribune, with McVay confirming the three-quarterback structure, per Stu Jackson at the team website. What cut day did not settle is the job directly behind him. Simpson started the finale and went 18 of 23 for 119 yards and a touchdown, including a run of 11 straight completions, per Zach Edwards at the team website, and McVay said afterward, "You've really seen a lot of really good things from him in each of these last three games." The beat is split on what it means: Frank Schwab at Yahoo read the week as Bennett having locked up the backup job, while Grisak at Sports Illustrated reads Simpson as positioned to win it. The team's own answer is neither: writing up the roster, Stu Jackson at the team website noted that as of August 20-seventh the Rams had not determined who would back Stafford up in Week One.
Around Stafford, the week's ledger was mixed. On protection, offensive linemen Justin Dedich and rookie tackle Keagen Trost went to injured reserve at cutdown, per Cameron DaSilva at Rams Wire, and the Rams kept nine linemen on the 53, per Jackson; right tackle Warren McClendon Jr. sat out the finale with the rested starters, per Wells. On weapons, the news pointed the right way: Puka Nacua returned to practice on Sunday, per Myles Simmons at Pro Football Talk, and is described as on track for the opener, per Brock Vierra at Rams Wire.
That answers both of the prior episode's watch items — no finale snaps, and Nacua back on the field. Back in June we previewed Stafford as a regression candidate with an elite base — 46 touchdown passes against eight interceptions and second in the league in adjusted net yards per attempt in 2025, by our numbers — with age and durability the one real doubt. A full-participation camp that ends with him wrapped in cotton wool is what the managed version of that bet looks like. One update to the file: the succession subplot behind him moved from a near-even rep split to a named, open decision. We'll check in as the opener draws near.
_Data via nflverse._
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