Even at 38, Matthew Stafford Is ‘Getting Better’ and Eyeing Another Home Super Bowl Win

Albert Breer’s Inside the QB Room Series: Joe Burrow | Jordan Love | Jared Goff | Trevor Lawrence | Jayden Daniels | Sam Darnold

The Seahawks sent a blitz on the play that would’ve had some quarterbacks thinking they had 13 players on the field. It was the Rams’ first offensive snap of the second half in the NFC championship game, and here came linebacker Drake Thomas between defensive tackle Jarran Reed and cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., with safety Nick Emmanwori, who showed blitz, falling off into the left flat.

Matthew Stafford calmly rolled left, against his body, toward Emmanwori then pivoted and waited for Colby Parkinson to clear safety Coby Bryant to his right and sit in an intermediate zone. Stafford dropped the ball just over corner Josh Jobe, close in coverage, into his tight end’s hands.

The throw looked routine for Stafford because, last year, even the most difficult things did for the NFL MVP.

“It was versus one of their fire-zone pressures, and they were in great position, and it was like a 40-yard handoff to Colby Parkinson,” said Sean McVay, six months later, smiling so broadly you’d have thought it just happened. “I remember, it happened toward our sideline, and I’m running with [Parkinson], like, That was a 40-yard f---ing handoff.”

The game was littered with throws like that.

Another came on a second-quarter in-cut to Puka Nacua for 21 yards, where Seattle forced Stafford to throw between four defenders—with Tariq Woolen chasing, Emmanwori inside, Ernest Jones IV outside and Coby Bryant over the top converging on the receiver—on time and in rhythm to a spot.

“That was a total trust and confidence throw,” Stafford said.

There were a couple of those to Davante Adams, including a 29-yarder on a fade in the third quarter that Stafford snuck over Jobe and far enough outside to keep Love, closing on Adams, away.

There’s more, too. And enough to where Stafford then brought up another throw from the teams’ Week 15 showdown, one he made against heavy pressure, coming from his right side, that looked like part of the plan. The truth: It wasn’t, but it seemed to be, a result of how smoothly the quarterback found an answer when there wasn’t one readily there.

“I hit Davis Allen early in that game on an overload pressure on the sideline for a big gain that’s not even part of my read,” Stafford explained. “It’s just feeling the game and feeling the defense and knowing to get there. That was a big one.”

Yes, Stafford is back in 2026 to pursue a second championship.

What else did I get from being around him in August? Well, it was obvious he’s also back for moments like these, pulling the strings on football’s chess game, with the answers to most every test.

At this point, that’s way too much fun for him to walk away from, and it has rubbed off on others.

The McVay-Stafford relationship

It was two days after the Rams’ victory over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI that Stafford and Cooper Kupp went to McVay’s office on the day they’d clean out their lockers for 2021. They had one clear message: You can’t do this.

It’d been rumored McVay, fighting burnout, might walk away—but he listened to his players.

Since then, the quarterback has found a lot of other ways to keep the coach coming back—to the point where the idea of leaving the Rams is barely on McVay’s radar anymore. McVay is glad he listened to those guys, too. Because more than anything, Stafford has given him every reminder, with his play alone, of why the 40-year-old started coaching in the first place.

“He’s as big a reason as there is that I’m still here,” McVay said. “He’s helped me find my way again, no question. I said it about that ’23 team, when I was broken down in ’22—I feel really grateful for a lot of people. But there’s no player that’s had a bigger impact on the enjoyment, the perspective and the gratitude I have for what a blessing it is to coach and to work with so many special players.

“And especially because it’s a guy that I work so closely hand-in-hand with. I love him unconditionally, and it’s a relationship that’s only gotten stronger as we’ve done this.”

And as it has gotten stronger, McVay adds, the 38-year-old Stafford is getting better.

“Here’s what I don’t want to have misunderstood,” McVay continued, “he’s always played at such a high level, his career in Detroit, and since he’s gotten here. But I genuinely believe he’s getting better.”

Which, in turn, is a big reason why Stafford’s appreciation for what he has around him, going into his 18th season, is at an all-time high.

That goes for McVay and assistants such as associate offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone, who always tells the head coach directly how lucky they are to have Stafford. It goes for teammates such as Nacua, Adams, Kyren Williams and all those tight ends and offensive linemen, too. It also goes for the situation he’s in, with the team landing edge rusher Myles Garrett and cornerback Trent McDuffie in trades and getting star defensive tackle Aaron Donald back out of retirement.

Those sorts of surroundings made the decision for Stafford to return this year simpler than it had been for a while. Easy enough that at the Super Bowl less than two weeks after that loss to Seattle in the title game, he was comfortable going to the podium and letting the whole world know—as he accepted his first MVP award.

He was healthy. Everything was good around him. That put him at his very best.

Why wouldn’t he want another crack at it?

“I felt like to be in consideration for that award, and it obviously takes so many good players on our team and all that, but I have to play consistently; I have to play well for a long period of time,” he said. “I had a stretch in there where I had a bunch of touchdowns and no turnovers. And then at the end of the year, we played Seattle on a Thursday night and then came back and played them again in the playoffs, and that’s as tough a defense as you’ll come up against. And I was able to play at a pretty decent level.

“But I felt like for me to play really well, everybody around me has to play really well. I’m not Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, some of these guys that can go out there and make these unbelievable creative plays with their legs. So I’m really blessed to have good players and a head coach that puts us all in a really good position to succeed. I was playing with a ton of confidence and trust in the players around me and in myself, and that can be a dangerous thing when a quarterback is playing that way.”

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford — Stafford threw for 374 yards and three touchdowns in the Rams' loss to the Seahawks in the NFC championship game. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Stafford’s approach to 2026

The Rams lost both of those games to Seattle. And while revenge against the Seahawks would be nice, it’s not what Stafford is really after.

It’s the throws that he made that challenged him in a way that all 239 regular-season starts and all 13 playoff appearances he has had are put to use. It’s the ones that went his way, and the few that didn’t. It’s the feeling he gets being in those situations, with so much on the line, with the degree of difficulty at its highest, that he can’t quit.

“For sure, there are plays you want back. There are things you want back,” he said. “But I’m getting to the point in my career where whether we played them when we played them on Thursday night or we played them at the end of the year, a couple other games that may not have gone our way, or maybe they did, I have great appreciation for being a part of games like that. You go rewatch that game, the Thursday night game, the title game and those were fantastic football games.

“That is high-level football in all three phases from both sides, huge plays being made all over the field back-to-back-to-back. And I have appreciation for being in those games and getting the chance to compete in that arena, when this time last year, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play a single snap.”

Indeed, last summer, Stafford didn’t even hit the practice field until Aug. 18, less than three weeks before the Rams opened his MVP season, as he worked to return from a back injury. Three years earlier, in 2022, an elbow injury cost him most of camp, and another back issue ended his season, following assorted injuries from his years in Detroit.

So there’s an appreciation for his health—“I feel good,” he said, knowing firsthand that it’s not a given.

Just the same, the opportunity he and the group around him have isn’t either.

McVay kept Stafford apprised as things evolved, giving him a heads-up on the idea that the Rams would take Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson and that a trade for Garrett, at that point, had potential to be the next move. He was actually wrapping up a trip to the Bahamas with his wife, Kelly, when McVay called to tell him the Garrett deal was done.

In the moment, the parallels were too obvious to ignore. In 2021, Stafford learned of his own trade while vacationing in Cabo. This year’s Super Bowl, like that year’s, is at home in Inglewood, Calif. The expectations couldn’t be higher.

But his role is different this time, so his approach has to be, too.

“Maybe the collection of talent or collection of players, sure, maybe you can think like that,” he said. “For me, it’s a totally different situation. I was the new guy trying to not be the weak link [in 2021]. And everybody knew what to do. I didn’t know what to do, so it was, I’ve got to figure this out as fast as I can. And now it’s kind of the opposite where I’m just trying to bring people along and help people out. It feels very different to me.”

Rams QB Matthew Stafford — Stafford won the Super Bowl the last time it was played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. | USA TODAY Sports

Taking his game to another level

Since he has seen so much good and bad in the league, Stafford knows it’s too early to start projecting what his team is going to look like in January and February, loaded as it might appear. But he can start to pick up signs, and those have been good so far.

“It’s just really competitive football all the way around,” Stafford said. “Defense wins some plays, we win some plays. And it’s back and forth. And there’s great competition. And it’s not combative, man. We are just competing. And there’s great tip-of-the-cap appreciation. Puka goes up and makes a great catch. And Trent [McDuffie] or one of our other guys is covering him and they’re just like, Hey, man, that’s a great play. And then the next time, Puka runs a great route, and they glove through and bat it down. And I’m like, Hey, great coverage.

“I mean, it’s just back and forth.”

Stafford then added that, as competitive as their division is, it’ll be important that the Rams put it together quickly, for days like Thursday against the 49ers. He acknowledged, too, that they’ll have to get a little lucky with health because that’s always the case in the NFL.

What he knows already is that he can’t wait to see what the whole thing looks like. He can’t wait to get back on stages like the one he climbed onto at Lumen Field in December and January. As much as anything, he really can’t wait to see how far he can take his game, with so much right around him, past what he did last year.

The Rams, in turn, want to give him every tool they can to make that happen.

“You want to do everything in your power to help set up successful outcomes for him and his team,” McVay said. “And that’s an easy reminder—what I’ve told the team is we’re not going to allow this season to be defined by success or failure or whether we win or lose the Super Bowl. We’re going to enjoy the moment. We’re going to like who we become. And in the midst of it, hopefully it gives us a chance to become the best football team we can. And I believe that, too.

“I will say this, I’m a better person because I get a chance to coach Matthew Stafford. And I mean that.”

And the reflection of that feeling being mutual is there in Stafford’s mere presence.

Asked if he’d ever have seen himself playing into a sixth year as a Ram upon the trade five years ago, Stafford responded, “I think something like three [years] would’ve felt right.”

Which is why, even now, he’s unwilling to say that he’d walk away, à la John Elway or Peyton Manning, if he and the Rams are hoisting a second Lombardi Trophy at home in February.

“I have so much respect for them, and it was really cool and unique how those guys got the opportunity to end their careers,” Stafford said. “But, no, I haven’t thought about that. I’m not even going to go there.”

Instead, he said, he’ll try and make the most out of what’s right in front of them.

If it goes as it did in 2021, great. If it goes as it did last year, he can handle that, too.

“You put yourself out there, and sometimes you fail as a team or as a player,” he continued. “But just having that opportunity and knowing what you put yourself through and your teammates put themselves through to be courageous enough to go out there and do that week in and week out, no matter what anybody has to say about it or how people are going to react to it, if you really compete and lay it all on the line, that’s as much fun as anything.”

And who knows? Maybe next year, he’ll feel the same way he does now.

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