Update: While the Rams were expecting to sign John Wolford off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad, Dianna Russini reports that Los Angeles was informed that the 28-year-old Dallas, Texas native prefers to stay in the Sunshine State with Todd Bowles and the Bucs.
The Los Angeles Rams currently have two quarterbacks on their roster with Matthew Stafford as the clear-cut starter and Brett Rypien as his backup, but it sounds like the team could be interested in making another move at the quarterback position, as Stafford deals with an injury to his throwing hand.
On Monday, Rams coach Sean McVay announced that Stafford has a UCL sprain in his right thumb and is considered day-to-day.
According to a report from Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Rams are expected to sign quarterback John Wolford off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad.
“The Rams are expected to sign quarterback John Wolford off the Buccaneers practice squad, per sources. He would be rejoining the team after spending the 2020 -2022 seasons with the Rams,” Russini, The Athletic’s senior NFL insider wrote on Twitter/X.
Rypien, who will be the team’s starter going forward — if Stafford is unable to go — was Los Angeles’ practice squad quarterback to begin the season. After Aaron Rodgers (Achilles) suffered a season-ending injury, the New York Jets tried to sign Rypien from the Rams’ practice squad to their active roster.
Instead, the Rams cleared a roster spot for Rypien by placing rookie Stetson Bennett IV on the non-football injury list.
On Monday, McVay addressed Bennett’s absence and said that while he’s not ready to say that the rookie out of Georgia won’t be back with the team this season, “It’s probably less than it is likely he would be.”
With Bennett’s status for the 2023 NFL season in limbo, it makes sense why the Rams would sign a familiar face in Wolford, who has had quite the career trajectory. After a four-year stint at Wake Forest where he set the school’s single-season passing yards and touchdown records (since broken by Sam Hartman) in his senior year, Wolford signed with the Jets as an undrafted free agent following the 2018 NFL Draft.
Wolford was one of the best players in the short-lived Alliance of American Football, throwing for 1,617 yards and a league-leading 14 touchdowns in eight games with the Arizona Hotshots before the league folded. NFL teams noticed Wolford’s performance, and he landed on the Rams’ practice squad for the 2019 season.
In 2020, Wolford found himself in an unexpected starting role when Jared Goff was injured. He started the Rams’ Week 17 game against the Arizona Cardinals and led them to an 18-7 victory, clinching a playoff spot. Wolford started the Wild Card Game against the Seattle Seahawks but was injured in the first quarter.
When the Rams acquired Stafford, Wolford became the backup quarterback and played sparingly in 2021 and 2022. He was part of the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI championship team.