Even though his Los Angeles Rams fell short in Sunday’s NFC title game, Matthew Stafford just finished a season playing arguably his best football ever. He enjoyed career highs in touchdown passes (46), passing success rate (54.4 percent), and passer rating (109.2). He also had his second-lowest interception percentage (1.3). There’s a reason he’s going to be the likely 2025 NFL MVP.
At the same time, Stafford now has 17 NFL seasons under his belt. He’s thrown nearly 8,800 passes, taken 525 sacks, and was dealing with reportedly serious back injuries before this current season began. (It’s worth noting Stafford has four daughters at home.) He will be 38 by the time Super Bowl 60 kicks off in two weeks. Only three quarterbacks have ever won a Super Bowl at age 38 or older, and they’re three of the greatest passers ever in John Elway, Peyton Manning (who was pretty washed-up at the time), and Tom Brady.
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There’s not exactly a history of ultimate success here.
Yes, Stafford was brilliant this year. But one might think, given all this extra context about him starting to get a bit long in the tooth, that it’s a fair question to ask whether he will return to play pro football in 2026. Yes, even though we know he likely (but not 100 percent certainly) will be back for the Rams.
Sean McVay vehemently disagrees with my assessment. When a reporter tried to get a sense of Stafford’s mindset about his future after the Rams’ tough loss in Seattle, a frustrated McVay turned his nose up at the mere suggestion Stafford wouldn’t be slinging passes to Puka Nacua and Davante Adams next fall. So much so, in fact, that McVay appeared to cut his presser short over the question before he could recite, from memory, what happened on a random second-down play with 10:03 left in the second quarter of the NFC title game.
Uh, I’m still unsure why:
To be fair to McVay in this moment, he’s probably still emotional about the Rams losing a shot at the Super Bowl to one of their biggest rivals. Some questions, like that of his best player’s future, are going to come across a little differently when he’s in the midst of trying to process where he went wrong in winning his third NFC title with the Rams. He also likely already knows that Stafford is for sure coming back (again, maybe?), barring some dramatic change. This makes the assertion that Stafford could retire in short order, in itself, ludicrous to McVay.
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Even still, a retirement question about a previously injured legendary quarterback pushing 40 who has spent nearly two decades playing a sport as punishing as NFL football is definitely fair game, no matter the context. This is especially the case when noting that Stafford might add an MVP trophy to his Super Bowl 56 championship ring, which would suggest he doesn’t really have anything left to accomplish.
That’s what makes me think that McVay’s irate reaction might suggest there’s more to Stafford’s NFL future than meets the eye. But I guess that’s something we’ll only get true clarity on in the coming offseason.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Sean McVay fumed about Matthew Stafford retirement question after Rams’ loss
