NFL
Stetson Bennett Went to the 1 Team Where He Can Become a Starter in the 2023 NFL Draft
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished30 Apr 2023
Despite Stetson Bennett winning two national championships with the Georgia Bulldogs, the quarterback wasn’t a big-time NFL Draft prospect. Bennett has physical limitations as a QB. And any maturity and leadership intangibles he brings were brought into question after an offseason arrest. The QB’s NFL future didn’t look great heading into the 2023 NFL Draft, but then Bennett fell into his best possible situation: With Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, and Los Angeles Rams.
Stetson Bennett could become the Rams’ starter
Georgia native Stetson Bennett took the long way to becoming a two-time national-championship-winning signal-caller.
Bennett started his career at Georgia, left for Jones Community College after he got stuck behind Jake Fromm and Justin Fields, then returned and became the team’s starter in 2021 and 2022. As the Bulldogs’ starting QB, Bennett went 29-3 and won two championships.
Despite the team’s success, Bennett wasn’t a high-end QB prospect. He’s just 5-foot-11, 192 pounds, and has an average arm at best. He’ll also turn 26 during his rookie season. That’s significantly older than most players in the NFL draft.
One thing Bennett did have going for him was the maturity and leadership he used to help lead his Georgia teams to the promised land. However, after his final college football season, Dallas police arrested Bennett for public intoxication.
Bennett answered all the questions about the incident at the combine and acknowledged his mistake. But at that point, it seemed as though the damage was done. The best the QB could hope for was becoming an end-of-the-draft seventh-round pick or a priority free agent once the draft concluded.
Something unexpected happened during the 2023 NFL Draft, though. When the Rams handed in their card for the No. 128 pick in the fourth round, it had the name “Stetson Bennett” on it.
And now Stetson Bennett is not only in the best NFL location for him, but he’s also in the one place where he could actually become a successful starter as soon as this season.
We all knew Sean McVay would take a late-round QB in the 2023 NFL Draft. Matthew Stafford is 35, and he spent half the season on the shelf last year with a scary-sounding neck injury. Stafford is also a former Georgia Bulldog, so it’s more likely he’ll be a mentor for Bennett.
Any later-round QB going to the Rams would be in a good spot, too, as McVay is an offensive genius and a quarterback whisperer. He’s got the best out of Kirk Cousins in Washington, made a Super Bowl with Jared Goff, and Stafford, a perennial loser, and won a Lombardi Trophy with him.
In addition to an offensive guru as a coach and a Bulldog mentor as a starter, Bennett also has the benefit of already being No. 2 on the depth chart right now. In addition to Bennett and Stafford, the only other QB on the Rams roster at this point is an undrafted free agent from the University of Tennessee-Martin, Dresser Winn.
Most draft pundits (this one included) didn’t see little Stetson Bennett as a hidden gem heading into this year’s NFL Draft. That said, after seeing that Sean McVay did, it makes you re-evaluate his potential.
And with a banged-up 35-year-old in front of him and a coach not scared to throw a young guy into the fire, Stetson Bennett may be in the only place where we could see him as a starting QB in the 2023 NFL season.
