mcvay not playing rookies and letting them sit is a misused trope that is actually not very true. McVay’s pattern of playing skill position rookies (on offense):

2017 - McVay’s first year

Everett : played all 16 games, about 30% of offensive snaps

Kupp : 15 games, 75% snaps

Reynolds : all 16 games, 30% snaps

2018 Kelly : didn’t amount to anything

2019 Henderson : 13 games but sparingly, only 10% snaps

2020 Akers : 13 games, 30% snaps

Jefferson : all 16 games, 25% snaps

Hopkins : didn’t amount to anything

2021 Atwell : didn’t amount to anything

Harris : didn’t amount to anything

Funk : didn’t amount to anything

Skowronek : 14 games, 20% snaps

2022 Williams : 10 games, 25% snaps (this one suggests that whenever he did play, he got the bulk of snaps)

2023 (9 games in) Bennett :

Nacua : 9 games, 90% snaps

Evans : not much going on yet

you can really easily tell that mcvay plays rookies plenty if they’re good enough to see the field. the pattern clearly is that those rookies who didn’t play their first year just weren’t good. I think playing 25% of snaps (not in a single game but across the entire season) is a good bar that they’re getting plenty of playing time as rookies. out of the 15 skill position players drafted in the mcvay era (not including bennett for reasons), 7 played 25% or more in their rookie years with skow just missing out. that’s basically half the rookies getting integrated right away. I really don’t know where this “mcvay sits rookies” idea came from.