With the regular season approaching, the league’s 32 teams either have solid backup quarterbacks, or they don’t. The Rams have a backup quarterback who, in the opinion of plenty of people outside the organization, isn’t solid. The team’s head coach thinks otherwise.
“Yeah, you feel good,” Sean McVay told reporters on Tuesday regarding the prospect of proceeding with Sean Mannion as the No. 2 to Jared Goff. “I think we’ll continue to evaluate things moving forward. I think that it’s been up and down, but I think it’s tough because the sample size is so small. What I think says as much as anything, like we talked about at the game [against the Texans], is right after that -- it didn’t start out the way you wanted, but a lot of times we talk about that mental toughness, not letting things snowball. He certainly ended the half in a good way the other day, but there’s always room that we can look to for improvement, really for the quarterback room as a whole, not specific to Sean.”
It won’t be an issue as long as Jared Goff remains healthy. But if Goff would get injured, Mannion would become the guy.
And it definitely has been a rocky preseason for Mannion, who has a passer rating of 49.9 in three starts, with Goff being kept in bubble wrap. Mannion has completed barely more than 50 percent of his passes, and he has one touchdown pass against two picks in those three games.
Brandon Allen is the No. 3 behind Mannion, and it remains to be seen whether the Rams will keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. None of it matters as long as Goff stays healthy. But if Goff can’t go, it will instantly become much harder for the Rams to live up to the sky-high expectations that have been placed on the defending NFC West champions.