Before the regular season started, the availability of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was shrouded in so much secrecy that, at one point, there was a running conspiracy theory that he had been cloned.
“I knew there was something different about him,” Stafford’s wife, Kelly, joked in an Instagram post in August.
The quarterback himself had some fun with the joke, saying on "The Pat McAfee Show" in September: “My clone is having a hell of a first four games.”
Whatever the Rams did with Stafford in training camp — when he missed much of practice with a back injury — has paid off. Because while Stafford may not be some kind of science fiction experiment, he is playing arguably the best football of his career.
Stafford and Los Angeles improved to 7-2 after a 42-26 drubbing of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Stafford was dominant in the win, completing 66.7% of his passes for 280 yards and four touchdowns — his third-straight game with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
“He’s just been in total command,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said postgame. “It’s a continuation of a guy that really works his tail off throughout the course of the week. He uses the accumulation of knowledge and experience, and he’s just playing really confident. It looks like the game is really in slow motion to him right now.”
Added receiver DaVante Adams: “It’s looked like MVP play to me all year to be honest.”
After he led the Rams to a Super Bowl win after the 2021 season, Stafford took a slight step back in the next three seasons. He was injured for much of 2022, and posted back-to-back sub-100 passer ratings in 2023 and 2024.
Last year, Stafford threw only 20 touchdowns, his lowest total when playing at least 16 games since 2012. So far this season, Stafford has 25 touchdowns (and only two interceptions) with eight games left to play. He’s also averaging his most yards per attempt since 2021 and has a career-best passer rating of 114.8.
The result is a Los Angeles team that is absolutely mowing down opponents.
The Rams have won four straight games by a combined margin of 82 points. Los Angeles’s two losses this season have both come in one-score games — a three-point loss to the 49ers in overtime, and a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in which the Rams’ potential game-winning field goal attempt was blocked as time expired.
Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, hasn’t simply turned back the clock. He’s seemingly gotten better. Stafford is on pace for 47 touchdown passes, which would be the highest single-season total of his career.
His impressive play has sparked an MVP conversation, an award Stafford has never won. Outside of his Super Bowl win with Los Angeles, Stafford’s most notable accomplishments are making two Pro Bowls (2014, 2023) and winning comeback player of the year in 2011.
An MVP would make Stafford the third-oldest player to win the award, an honor he would share with Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Rich Gannon and Y.A. Tittle.
Stafford, who turns 38 the day before the Super Bowl in February, said Sunday he isn’t paying too much attention to the MVP chatter, however.
“I’m trying to just continue to find ways to be a good football player for this team, lead this team, and try to get us in the end zone as much as I can, do my job as best I can,” he said.
For now, Stafford is likely focused on getting the Rams back to another Super Bowl. He is 1-2 in the postseason in the last two seasons, including a loss to the Eagles in the NFC divisional round in January.
Los Angeles has the second-best point differential in the NFC after Sunday’s win, behind only the Seattle Seahawks, setting up a massive showdown between the division rivals next week. The Seahawks are also 7-2 and lead the NFC West based on their record in divisional games.
If Stafford is able to continue his season-long tear against the Seahawks and then beyond, the Rams are going to be difficult for anyone to beat.
