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The Los Angeles Rams may have yet another day two draft steal on their hands in second-year edge rusher Josaiah Stewart. As Sean McVay figures out the final roster over the next two weeks, it’s gotta be nice to have players he knows are a lock to make the team. As long as Stewart stays healthy, he is building on what he learned in his rookie season, and is expected to have a better 2026. Josaiah Stewart looks like “Pro Bowler” in Rams-Saints practice Stewart could be Les Snead’s latest draft gem He might be ready to thrive as a rotational piece, if not something more. Don’t just take my word for it. This was the report out of this week’s joint practice with the New Orleans Saints: “(Stewart looks) like a future Pro Bowler.” It’s the time of the season to get excited about everybody, nothing wrong with that. Showing out in practice is great, players can make a career in the NFL doing that. Showing out gameday, likely better. We’ll see how Stewart does soon enough, and if he has the type of breakout year that some (or many) are expecting. “How has Josaiah Stewart been looking? Like a future Pro Bowler. I wrote about Stewart in my review, but I’ll dive into what I saw on Thursday. Stewart was calm and focused throughout the whole practice, but when it was time to make a play, he was smoking offensive players. Fast, strong, balanced. It’s clear that having an offseason away from football, the draft, college summer workouts – all the things that were part of his schedule for the last few years – allowed him to make that transition from promising to dominant. I asked Byron Young last year about Stewart, and he mentioned that he had a veteran mindset as a rookie. That was reinforced when Stewart recovered from an injury, catching up in his development within one season. He’s special, and if he’s used in the Michael Hoecht role, I think his floor is five sacks, with his ceiling being 12.“ This Chris Shula piece below is from a couple/weeks ago. Shula’s been seeming excited to see what Stewart can do this year. “Los Angeles Rams fans have heard only positives about edge rusher Josaiah Stewart entering his second season. That buzz has hummed louder throughout training camp, and speaking to reporters this week, defensive coordinator Chris Shula confirmed that Stewart has been, well, a monster: “He’s been showing up. I said to him, ever since we put the pads on, he decides to make a bunch of plays. He’s physical on the edge. I think he’s an every-down player, where he can go in the run game and play on a tight end, and he’s obviously a great pass rusher, a guy that can drop in coverage. He’s a guy that really can do it all, and do it at a high level,” Shula beamed. “He has a great feel for angles, for space, he’s physical, and he’s had, I think it’s been three or four days in a row, where he’s shown up a lot. So he’s had a great camp.” 5 players to watch: Rams vs Saints, 2026 Preseason Week 2 (Rams website) Simpson shined in his three quarters of play last week against the Chiefs, going 21-for-25 passing with 190 yards and two touchdowns. He received 12 of the 25 second-team offense reps in the Rams’ joint practice with the Saints, and is continuing to grow as he looks to make an impact this week against the Saints in his SoFi Stadium preseason debut. “I thought his huddle command was excellent, his ability to articulate the plays and the way that our operation was and then he made the decisions that good quarterbacks make. I thought he delivered the ball on time and in rhythm,” McVay said Tuesday of his performance throughout training camp in the reps he gets. “He’s done a good job the last couple days in practice and so biggest thing, like what you said, let’s maximize the reps that you do get.” Aaron Donald “working out getting locked in” Do you believe Donald will return? The Way-Too-Early Rams 53-Man Roster: Offense (Sporting Tribune) The Don of the offense, Stafford is coming off an MVP year in which he threw for 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns with a 109.2 passer rating—both league-leading marks. At 38, his arm remains a howitzer, his pocket presence is elite and his chemistry with Davante Adams and Puka Nacua has reached telepathic proportions. He knows how to manipulate a defense with his eyes, whether looking or not, and when they are out of position, Stafford will whack the defense. He is the franchise, the leader, and the reason the Rams are Super Bowl favorites. Brenda Song to make debut as Rams color analyst Song is an actress, a star in her own right, and close with Macaulay Culkin. I am all for this. Sing Brenda Song, sing. Los Angeles Rams OC Nathan Scheelhaase refuses to look too far ahead (Andscape) In the latest episode of Coaches Conversations, Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase joins Andscape senior NFL writer Jason Reid to discuss his promotion, a demanding NFL schedule, and the possibility of becoming a head coach. He explains why he refuses to look too far ahead, even after taking part in head coaching interviews. Scheelhaase also shares what he has learned from Rams head coach Sean McVay about culture, communication and developing assistants. With Super Bowl LXI coming to Los Angeles, the Rams’ goal is enormous — but his focus stays on winning each day first. Max Klare makes most of preseason debut (Rams) “Yeah, it’s obviously always fun to contribute,” Klare told therams.com. “(Quarterback) Ty (Simpson) did a great job finding the open guy, which they fell off on me a couple times, which made it easy. But yeah, it’s just a continual process of stacking days and getting better.” Klare brought in three of those receptions — all on the same drive toward the end of the first half — within a string of eight consecutive completions for Simpson. “At this point it is still unclear what the Rams are going to do, but they are running out of time to make a decision as they play the New Orleans Saints at 4:00 pm EST on Saturday, Aug. 22. At the start of this week head coach Sean McVay said he wanted to wait to see how practice goes before deciding if Bennett will play on Saturday or not. Those practices have come and gone, but he still hasn’t made a final decision. McVay really only has two options he is choosing from. He could do the exact same thing that he did last week by letting Bennett start and play the first two series of the game before letting rookie quarterback Ty Simpson play the rest of the game. Or he could bench Bennett for the entire game which he almost did for their first game last weekend.“ “Drafted by the Eagles, Lemon suffered a hamstring injury and is only now returning to practice. With the Jets, Sadiq suffered a setback after undergoing offseason hernia surgery. Meanwhile, Simpson played well enough in his first preseason game to quiet even his harshest critics. Despite the boy crying wolf over Simpson, it appears that general manager Les Snead made the right choice.“The Los Angeles Rams have one of the NFL’s best rosters, but there’s a looming issue that awaits the team after the season. There are a plethora of players who are set to be free agents in March, and even if the team wins the Super Bowl, the desires of others might prompt them to force the Rams to make tough financial decisions. Exemplifying the issue, Pro Football Focus ranked Puka Nacua (first), Kevin Dotson (second), Davante Adams (seventh), and Byron Young (ninth) as four of the top 10 highest-graded players entering contract years.“ “Guitarist NITA STRAUSS is returning to the stage this weekend to kick off her seventh season performing at Los Angeles Rams NFL games, continuing one of the most recognizable partnerships between rock music and professional sports. This season also brings some extra energy as JOSH VILLALTA — Strauss’ husband, manager, and drummer — will be performing at the games by her side. A drummer and performer in his own right, Villalta has spent years sharing stages with Strauss while also playing an integral role as manager behind the scenes in her career. His new role as drummer brings another live music element to the Rams’ game day experience and puts the longtime musical duo side by side on one of the biggest stages in professional sports.“ Draft analysts attempt to cover 32 NFL teams. Limits to the time and energy required to research each organization’s needs, inclinations, and fits force mock drafts to apply a cookie-cutter approach. As a result, Round 1 projections follow the same script. In essence, bad teams draft a quarterback. Offense-centric teams draft receivers or bookend offensive tackles. Defense-centric teams draft edge rushers or cornerbacks.“ What do we think about Konata Mumpfield for 2026? “I thought Mumpfield was in a similar situation as Ferguson last year. Open a lot, but not where Stafford thought he would be. And not strong at the catch point. But Davante’s opinion of him says a lot, let’s let him develop.” -delusionalramfanslosteve Feedpost of the Day: Are you looking forward to anything in today’s preseason game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints? And or are you looking for anything NFL related in any preseason game today? Players to watch vs the Saints Last week was certainly entertaining, but this week we get to see if some first impressions were maybe a bit hasty. Five guys I'll be watching tomorrow: TY SIMPSON I hope whoever is calling the offense tomorrow takes the training wheels off and lets Simpson air it out a bit more. Last week was a good introduction, but we need to see some more big-boy skills. His scouting report on nfldraftbuzz highlights his strengths as over-the-middle and deep passes. Let's see some more. On the negative side, they point out that "ball placement is inconsistent and leaves yards after catch on the field." I saw that a few times last week, and they need to clean it up. NICK ANDERSEN He was a complete surprise to me last week. After his second or third play, I had to look up who this '45' was. His 'hair-on-fire' style of play reminded me of Troy Polamalu, but with the depth the Rams have at safety, he's got a tough job ahead. It will be interesting to see if he contributes in the same fashion this week. DEAN CONNORS I was super impressed with his game last week. If he happens to get the start tomorrow, Jarquez Hunter better watch out. He made some really nice blocks against KC, and I'll be watching to see if that continues. CJ DANIELS He caught both catchable balls thrown his way last week, one of which was a nice contested catch on a crossing route. He was open on a few other plays, but with the dink-and-dunk play calling, he wasn't even looked at. I'd like to see a few more passes go his way. AUSTIN BLASKE He was PFF's second-ranked rookie tackle last week, and for good reason. He was almost flawless at both left tackle and guard, and another performance like that should ease some people's minds about the Alaric Jackson situation. Did I miss anybody?