Saturday night’s preseason game between the Rams and Chargers won’t be one that pits Matthew Stafford against Justin Herbert or Jalen Ramsey against Keenan Allen. Instead, it’ll be mostly backups on the field at SoFi Stadium for the first game fans are allowed to attend at the new building in Inglewood.
Brandon Staley is taking a page from Sean McVay’s book, announcing that several of his top starters won’t be playing any preseason games at all. That list consists of the following names: Justin Herbert, Derwin James, Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, Corey Linsley, Bryan Bulaga, Linval Joseph, and Jared Cook.
It’s unclear which other players won’t play on Saturday night against the Rams, but those listed above won’t play at all in the preseason. The Rams are taking a similarly cautious approach, holding out players such as Stafford, Darrell Henderson Jr. and presumably Ramsey and Aaron Donald, among others.
With the regular season about a month away, neither Staley nor McVay will take any chances with their most important players in meaningless preseason games.
