Los Angeles Rams: 3 reasons resting starters against Oakland Raiders was right move

3. McVay getting better feel for backups

As mentioned before, the preseason is the perfect time of year for backup players to take advantage of additional playing time on the football field to build a case for making the 53-man roster. From McVay’s perspective, the head coach entered preseason with a good idea of which players would end up being the starters for that first meeting against Oakland, but as for the backups for each position, well that’s a different situation.

From Sean Mannion still in need of convincing he deserves to be the backup quarterback to seeing who will end up being the No. 2 running back behind Gurley, there’s still plenty of uncertainty over what the final roster will look like in a few weeks. But at least by resting the starters once again when facing the Raiders, McVay is getting a better idea of which backups would be worth keeping around for the regular season to put the Rams in a better situation to live up to the Super Bowl hype.

Take a look at Kelly for instance, as the rookie running back has led the team in rushing in each of the first two preseason games to make a strong case over Malcolm Brown to be Gurley’s top backup. Kelly is just one of numerous members on Los Angeles that has benefited from the starters resting over the last two weeks, and this will certainly help McVay in a few weeks when he faces some tough decisions with roster cuts.