Sean McVay Allows Himself To Believe Baker Mayfield Improves The Rams

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay has refuted suggestions they signed Baker Mayfield to prevent him going to the 49ers.

Sean McVay finds himself light at quarterback with Matthew Stafford potentially out for the season. Backup John Wolford is a doubt due to a neck issue, leaving the Rams with Bryce Perkins.

Similarly, the 49ers are going ahead with rookie QB Brock Prudy with Jimmy Garoppolo unlikely to feature again this season.

It speaks to Mayfield’s situation that palace intrigue between divisional rivals is considered a feasible reason for his recruitment.

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Baker Mayfield was willingly released by Carolina after putting up league-worst and career-worst production this year. Right now, he is someone who can play quarterback in the NFL, rather who can play quarterback in the NFL to a high level. 

“No, no, it’s really a circumstance of he ends up getting his release from the Panthers, obviously Matthew’s on IR, John’s neck is a questionable situation,” Sean McVay said when asked if the Rams claimed Mayfield to prevent him from joining the 49ers. “We had to address it at some point. It just so happened that the timing kind of worked out in our favor. It worked out, and we feel good about it.”

Such is the Rams’ need, Sean McVay didn’t rule out Baker Mayfield starting for the team as soon as Thursday. It remains highly unlikely, but they have nothing to lose at this point.

“It was good to be able to be around him. Really, we feel like it upgraded our quarterback room, gives us a chance to have him in the building, and we’ll see how it goes, and we’ll take it a day at a time.”

Read: LA Rams Claim Veteran Baker Mayfield Off Waivers

“When you have a player of his caliber come available and you look at just the circumstances and situations surrounding our quarterback room, we felt like it was the right move for us,” McVay said on Wednesday. 

“It was a guy that I’ve always respected his game, like a lot of things that he brings to the table. I’ve known him a little bit, just going back to even when we rode out to the combine together; when he was training in L.A., we sat next to each other on the Southwest flight, the only direct flight from LAX to Indianapolis.”