LA Rams wrong to rest Stafford and starters; Detroit Lions right to play their top players

Sit or start? Rest or rust?

When it comes to the NFL regular-season finale, this is the age-old question.

Is it better to give key starters a final game off as a de facto second bye week that allows them to heal from the six-month grind of the season?

Or is it better to keep players focused and sustain the team’s momentum going with the playoffs that start the following week? That’s an especially difficult decision when playoff seeding is at stake.

This week, the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams proved on opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum on this issue.

The Lions control the NFC’s No. 3 seed with a slim chance to move up to the No. 2 seed. Coach Dan Campbell announced Monday it would be all hands on deck for Sunday’s finale against visiting Minnesota.

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The Rams, who have clinched a playoff spot and control the No. 6 seed but could drop to the seventh and final seed, announced Wednesday they would rest Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp and most other key starters for Sunday’s finale against the visiting 49ers.

“But when you look at the totality of it,” Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters Wednesday, “just balancing what do you think is best? And there's not a perfect solution, especially when you're talking about 53 guys, 48 active, you've got the ability to flex two up (from the practice squad), we do have a couple of injuries.”

Here’s the crazy thing. The Rams probably have more at stake and more incentive to win Sunday, in their visit to San Francisco, than the Lions do in order to keep themselves from dropping to the seventh seed, which would happen with a loss and a Packers win over the Bears.

The seventh seed will likely have to open at Dallas, where the Cowboys and Brad Allen are practically unbeatable, riding a 16-game home winning streak. Survive that and the seventh-seeded Rams would get the pleasure of a return for the divisional round at San Francisco, where they haven’t won since 2018.

Or the Rams could play their starters Sunday, give themselves the best chance to hold on to the sixth seed and likely travel to Detroit to face Aaron Glenn’s defense, which has allowed an average of 26 points in the past eight games.

The Lions also have a lot at stake, but the difference between the No. 2 or No. 3 seed isn’t monumental. Yes, a second home playoff game would be great. But they’ve proved they can win anywhere. They should have won at Dallas and would probably relish the chance to go back there for a revenge game. Whether they’re the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, they almost certainly would have to go to San Francisco for the NFC title game.

I don’t know if McVay is trying to protect players who are more injured than he’s letting on or if he’s trying to avoid a drama-filled matchup against the Lions in what would be Stafford’s first return to Ford Field.

There might even be a pregame conversation in which Jared Goff could regale Stafford with tales about the satisfying nature of winning the NFC North as he points to the crisp, new banner hanging in the rafters: “Remind me again. How many division titles did you win here in 12 years?”

I fully understand and appreciate the need to give key players as much rest as possible at the end of a grueling season that started in the sweltering heat of training camp six months ago. But there’s also a danger of letting your foot off the gas a little too early.

This is why the Lions got it exactly right with their decision to go full throttle in Sunday’s finale. I asked offensive coordinator Ben Johnson on Thursday if he might advocate pulling some starters late in the game if the Lions have a big lead, but he deferred to Campbell’s wisdom.

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“I’m trusting the powers that be and that have gone through this before what the best course of action is to get us ready,” he said, “not only to win the game this week, but also the future weeks as well.”

The best example of why the Lions should start their key players, and probably won’t pull them off the field, is right tackle Penei Sewell. He just made his second straight Pro Bowl and he’s the team’s best player relative to his ranking among NFL players at his position.

He also hasn’t missed a single snap of football since Oct. 31, 2021 — a total of 2,761 plays on offense without coming off the field. This is almost unfathomable. Linemen have to move a lot and absorb hard contact on every play. They aren’t receivers who get to run decoy routes or quarterbacks who get to hand off the ball nearly half the time.

So I asked Sewell what he thought about the benefit of resting this week.

“To be honest, I just approach it like any other week,” he said. “It's just another game and I expected myself to be out there. And if everyone else is out there, why not? Why not for me too?

“So it's just a normal week. It doesn't matter that we're in the playoffs. I think it's an opportunity to kind of get ramped up to because at times I feel like if you rest you can be slow coming out the gate for the playoffs.”

The Rams definitely have an advantage in experience, when it comes to preparing for the playoffs. But Sewell is right about the desire to maintain momentum and I would never want to try to stop a player of his caliber, or size, from getting where he wants to go.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: LA Rams wrong to rest starters, Detroit Lions right to play theirs