Rams head coach Sean McVay: 'Zero chance' Matthew Stafford takes preseason snap

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer told reporters Wednesday he hadn't yet made a final decision on how much rookie quarterback and first-overall draft selection Trevor Lawrence will play during the preseason. Meyer and company understandably want to keep Lawrence as healthy as possible until Week 1 of the regular season, but the first-year pro should see a live opposing defense at least a handful of times this month. 

While this certainly isn't the first trip around the NFL for veteran signal-caller Matthew Stafford, he's only officially been with the Los Angeles Rams since he joined the franchise via a March trade from the Detroit Lions. Thus, some may have thought coach Sean McVay would want his QB1 to take a dozen or so snaps in exhibition contests. 

McVay does not. 

"There is zero chance you will ever see Matthew Stafford take a snap in the preseason for the Rams as long as I'm the coach. That will never happen," McVay explained, per Kevin Patra of the league's website. "He is not going to play. That's why it's important for us to try to get competitive 'opps' against some of these other teams in practice settings. Practicing against the Cowboys this Saturday. Get the Raiders twice. So we're always looking for those things. Until you tell me that if a guy gets hurt in the preseason that we'll get those games back or they'll add them on the schedule afterwards as, 'Oh yeah, you get two games because you lost those guys in the preseason,' it's hard for me to make sense of it."

Coaches electing to sit starting quarterbacks and other key players throughout meaningless August matchups is already quite common, and it's likely only a matter of time before the NFL shifts to a schedule that includes 18 regular-season games and only two preseason contests. 

The preseason, as fans know it today, may not even exist by the end of the decade.