Stetson Bennett reveals why he stepped away from football for entirety of rookie season

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Stetson Bennett missed the entirety of his rookie season due to previously undisclosed reasons, which he recently indicated had to do with mental health.

Much was kept under wraps as to why Bennett was not in action, but several suspected that it had something to do with matters related to mental health issues.

Bennett himself recently pulled back the curtain just a little bit, indicating in an interview with the media in Los Angeles that he wanted to keep the reasoning behind his absence "in-house."

But, when asked if it would be "accurate to say that it fell under the umbrella of mental health," Bennett replied, "Yeah, I'd say that."

Bennett also said that he was "nervous" on his first day back rejoining the team for offseason activities, but he intends to be back with the Rams in a full capacity moving forward.

"Thank goodness that [general manager] Les [Snead] and Coach [Sean] McVay and everybody involved allowed me to do that," Bennett said.

General manager Les Snead elaborated just days ago on Bennett's situation, showing a strong sense of understanding for what the former walk-on had been through and the toll it can take.

"I know this: Last year was very beneficial for him. I think he took advantage of that year away from the game," Snead said.

"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."

The two-time national champion is now ready to come back stronger than he ever has.

"And so you kind of come out here and you're hungry every single day," Bennett said. "And I don't know, it did make me like, 'Hey, this is ... You want to do this and you want to work hard every single day and get better.'"