If you’ve been anxiously waiting to see Todd Gurley, Jared Goff and the rest of the Los Angeles Rams’ starters on the field this season, there’s good news. The majority of the first-team offense and defense will be on the field Saturday against the Houston Texans, Sean McVay confirmed on Monday.

There are a few exceptions such as Mark Barron, Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan, but everyone else is expected to play if healthy.

“As far as this week, we’re going to approach it like a game where we’re going to play guys. There’s maybe a couple of those veteran players that we might rest – the Whitworths and Sullivans of the world – but everybody else we’ll expect to get ready to go and see them perform a little bit and get a chance to go against a great team in the Texans.”

McVay said Barron and Dominique Easley won’t play this week as they’re just returning from injuries, but it’s great to see the coach getting slightly more aggressive with his handling of the preseason games. Given the number of injuries that have already occurred this preseason, it’s easy to see why McVay wanted to rest his starters in the first two games.

The fact that guys like Joseph Noteboom, Brian Allen and Jamil Demby have all played well eases McVay’s mind when it comes to throwing Jared Goff out there against an aggressive Texans defense.

“I think so. Yeah, no doubt. I think just going through the operation in general, adjusting to the noise. Like you said, you try to mimic and emulate those things in practice, but there’s nothing like truly going through a pregame routine and especially for a quarterback, being able to potentially get tackled,” McVay said. “Seeing a live rush, getting some throws and I think Jared would say himself, he wants to play. That’s why he’s a great competitor, he wants to play.”

It remains to be seen how much the starters will play – typically, it’s at least the first half in preseason Week 3 – but don’t be surprised to see McVay take a cautioned approach to the game. Goff could be out there for just a quarter, or maybe McVay will play him the entire first half.

He didn’t clarify on that aspect of the game, but it’ll be great to simply see the first-stringers on the field making plays. Fans should be excited for the Rams debuts of Brandin Cooks, Ndamukong Suh, Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters.