The Los Angeles Rams’ 2023 NFL Draft class was a fruitful one for the team as it provided several Day 1 starters.
Steve Avila, Puka Nacua, Kobie Turner and Byron Young all became impact players for the Rams immediately and are expected to take leaps forward in 2024.
However, Stetson Benntt was unable to join his teammates in 2023 as he spent the season away from Los Angeles after being placed on the reserve/non-football illness list just before Week 1.
He is now back with the Rams for OTAs though with the expectation that he will play for the team in 2024.
Despite his absence, general manager Les Snead believes the year off was good for Bennett, via Chuck Williams of WHNT News 19:
“I know this: Last year was very beneficial for him. I think he took advantage of that year away from the game. You know what, he’s an exhausted human being based on everything he had done to walk on, to go to JUCO, to come back, to turn down small schools, say ‘I’m going to try to do this Georgia thing.’ To win a job, then to win the thing, and then to determine, ‘I’m going to come back.’ And when you come back, it’s really win it again or you failed. And that does take a toll on a human being, so I was jacked for Stetson to be able to take that moment and breathe a little bit.”
When asked if he would draft Bennett knowing he would miss a year, Snead confirmed he would do it all over again:
“Looking back, for sure. I think our ecosystem was going to be very good for him and we had a plan for him, whichever direction it went. And so there was a luxury that we had. And we had gone through it the year before where we had won a Super Bowl and it really started when we lost our first one but we were an exhausted building so there was an element of understanding the toll it takes to put a team, to do your part. The responsibility of the QB, and in our sake, we saw what taking a break, giving some guys a break from the game to get refreshed – I call it, to get bored and fall back in love with the game you grew up playing in the backyard.”
