Sean McVay is in his first season as an NFL head coach, and he’s not taking any chances with his most important players. By taking that approach, he’s limiting the number of snaps Rams starters are playing this preseason.

Jared Goff has yet to play two full quarters in a game, Todd Gurley has just 12 carries and only two defensive starters played in last week’s loss to the Chargers. With the number of preseason injuries that have occurred across the NFL this year, it’s easy to understand why McVay would prefer not to risk injury to the guys who will determine the Rams’ season in 2017.

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There is a chance, however, that his players won’t be as prepared when Week 1 comes around. That’s not something he’s worried about, though.

“I think it’s certainly something that you always discuss because you have an appreciation for the importance of the preseason,” McVay said in his press conference. “But, I thought Coach Wade [Phillips] said it best where, a lot of these guys that have played a lot of football, the important thing is being aware of allowing them to be at their best September 10th with their health, with everything else and trusting that they know how to prepare to the best of their ability.”

Despite McVay’s confidence that his players will be ready and well prepared for Week 1, he does admit that playing together and getting on the same page certainly helps.

“Not taking away from that, that’s definitely something that, in an ideal situation, we’d like to have all those guys having played together, getting ready, but just based on the circumstances that we’ve dealt with, we’ve made some of those decisions that the first time a lot of the guys will get an opportunity to play together is September 10th,” McVay added. “We’re certainly not using that as an excuse to be rusty in any form or fashion. We just know that the level of urgency for these next 13 days has to be ramped up, especially for those guys that haven’t gotten a chance to play in the preseason.”

McVay has already ruled out all of the first-team offense and defense for Thursday night against the Packers, the team’s final preseason game. He did say that the coaching staff went “back and forth” on whether or not to play guys like Jared Goff, who have been very limited in the preseason, but ultimately the team will use practice to ramp up the intensity.

That’s certainly the safer way to get it done, seeing as it’s teammates going against each other with a lesser risk of injury, but it’s hard to replicate the demands and speed of an NFL game.