Los Angeles Rams Camp Update — August 16: Ty Simpson Went 21-of-25 and the Right Tackle Job Still Has No Game Tape

Ty Simpson went 21 of 25 for 190 yards and two touchdowns in his NFL debut, and the right tackle job the whole season leans on still has no game tape — Saturday's rookie starter lasted one quarter. In July we said the Rams were all-in with one fragile assumption — that an MVP season built in the league's second-cleanest pocket survives losing its right tackle to retirement and carrying a legal cloud over its left tackle. Last Sunday we called it UNCHANGED, and meant that precisely: a compressed, heavily managed camp had produced no evidence about the pocket in either direction. We left two checkable items on the desk — who takes the first-team right tackle reps in the preseason opener, and whether Myles Garrett returns as a full participant for Melbourne prep.

The opener came Saturday at Arrowhead, and the Rams beat the Chiefs 20 to 12. The score is a footnote, because neither team played its starters and Matthew Stafford never entered. What the game actually offered was the debut of Ty Simpson, the 13th overall pick, and it was loud: 21 of 25 for 190 yards and two touchdowns without an interception across roughly three quarters, per Stu Jackson at the team website. His first NFL snap went for a 23-yard completion, per Julia Stumbaugh at Bleacher Report, and both touchdowns went to running back Dean Connors on back-to-back fourth-quarter drives. The league's own wire recap attached the caveat we would have written anyway — Simpson worked against mostly third and fourth string defenders — and we'll co-sign it. A 21-of-25 night against a fourth-string secondary is a good night against a fourth-string secondary. It is also exactly what a rookie learning Sean McVay's system is supposed to do with that assignment. Simpson's own read: "I definitely felt more comfortable than I ever had coming into a game." Rookie tight end Max Klare led the team with eight targets and seven catches, Stetson Bennett opened with a stalled drive and finished 4 of 6 for 38 yards, and the defense allowed no touchdowns — all 12 Kansas City points were Harrison Butker field goals.

Now watch item one, and the honest answer is that the question couldn't be asked. The starters sat, so no first-team right tackle reps existed. What the game gave us instead was worse: rookie third-round pick Keagen Trost started at right tackle and left in the first quarter with a hamstring injury, ruled out for the night, with Blake Hance finishing, per Stu Jackson at the team website. Severity undetermined, per Vincent Bonsignore's reporting. McVay had liked Trost's versatility — "You see the agility and the flexibility to be able to play on the right and left sides" — which is now a compliment attached to a hamstring. The paper answer arrived separately this week: the team's first unofficial depth chart lists Warren McClendon as the first-team right tackle, per Bret Stuter's breakdown at Ramblin Fan, with Alaric Jackson holding down the left side. So the job has a name. It still has no game evidence, and its depth got thinner Saturday.

Watch item two, Garrett, and the answer is no. The Rams held him out again around August 11 as a precaution amid knee swelling — reported by Kevin Parrish Jr. at Athlon Sports as separate from the soreness that cost him four practices the week before — and per the same reporting he will sit out the preseason games entirely. As of Thursday he was still not practicing, at roughly 85 percent, per Josh Buckhalter at Heavy. McVay's framing: "I don't know what 100 percent is going to look like, but it must be pretty good if that's 85 percent." That's a coach bringing charm to a knee-swelling update. And the week added a new name to the managed list: Puka Nacua left Tuesday's practice early with core-muscle soreness, missed Thursday, and McVay says he should resume practicing next week. Buckhalter's note that a longer absence could put the Melbourne opener in question is the reason this file matters more than its diagnosis.

One roster thread to log: the depth chart has Bennett as the second quarterback and Simpson third alongside Matt Caldwell, consistent with last week's reporting that Bennett had earned the backup job. Saturday's box score will heat that conversation without necessarily changing it — Bennett got six throws, Simpson got the whole night against the deep depth chart.

Does the July framing hold? Complicated — the pocket remains untested, and the week kept stacking evidence on the fragility side of the ledger: Garrett's swollen knee, Nacua's core muscle, Trost's hamstring, and a right tackle answer that exists only on paper. What would change it: whether Nacua is back at practice next week as McVay expects, and whether McClendon takes first-team right tackle snaps in the second preseason game. We'll check Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._