Matthew Stafford was all-in with the Los Angeles Rams from the moment he was traded to the West Coast. He didn’t miss a practice and took every single training camp snap with the first team offense, per The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue. The end result was 942 passing yards and nine touchdowns in his first three games with the franchise, a fairy tale debut and a Super Bowl championship.
In 2022, Stafford and the Rams are taking a different approach. The flame-throwing veteran didn’t throw a pass in Wednesday’s practice, instead letting backup John Wolford play with the starters. It’s not routine rest, either; it’s managing the arm pain that lingered through his 2021 season and kept him from throwing throughout the offseason.
Matthew Stafford working on dropbacks while the other QBs throw to receivers on the opposite field. McVay said the plan is to decrease Stafford’s workload after he felt pain in his throwing arm #Rams
— Gilbert Manzano (@GManzano24) August 3, 2022
Just how long he’ll be sidelined is unclear, though he’s been ruled out through at least the rest of the week and part of the next. Head coach Sean McVay doesn’t think it’ll last through the preseason, but he didn’t rule out a scenario where Stafford doesn’t take a snap until Week 1 prep work begins in earnest:
“When you really look at the totality of it, [you] want to try to have him operate in as little as pain as possible,” McVay told reporters at his daily press conference Wednesday. “I think anytime that you’ve played as long and are as tough as he is, I don’t know if you’re ever truly pain free but the goal would be for September 8 [the team’s season opener against the Buffalo Bills].
“I don’t know that I would feel as comfortable taking that approach if it wasn’t for the experience that he’s accumulated and knowing how intentional he is about staying up to speed with his mental and his physical work that he can do in the absence of some of the stuff in the team settings.”
McVay isn’t bothered, but his job is to project confidence no matter the situation. There’s a very real concern that a diminished Stafford would be an anchor for a franchise pushing toward an NFL championship defense.
But it’s entirely too early to worry about that. Stafford proved he knew McVay’s playbook inside and out en route to that Super Bowl win. He doesn’t need these snaps to get acclimated to the system. By sitting out now he’s missing an opportunity to adjust to some new offensive linemen and prospective WR2 Allen Robinson, but he can build a relationship with either on the fly.
Los Angeles’ current plan is to reduce Stafford’s discomfort and balance that against team readiness. As Rodrigue points out, this is not a case of late-stage Drew Brees or Ben Roethlisberger planning around dead arms. When Stafford has thrown, he’s looked like typical Matthew Stafford:
I think a few things are true about this Matthew Stafford/arm situation and it’s worth laying out the context as things *currently* stand https://t.co/y8Ex9gpqXl pic.twitter.com/xY7bwOkX9x
— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) August 4, 2022
The risk/reward of pushing that in training camp swings heavily in favor of resting the veteran. Sitting Stafford means a little extra freshness in an arm that became a problem late in the season (seven interceptions in the Rams’ final three regular season games). It also gives Wolford a chance to increase his readiness should this elbow issue flare up in the season.
This is nothing to overreact to. Don’t fade Cooper Kupp in fantasy just because Stafford is limited to low-key dropbacks in practice instead of throwing darts downfield. The veteran quarterback is likely to play through whatever pain a dinged-up elbow brings; the only games he’s missed over the last decade were a result of a fractured spine.
But if Stafford plays in Week 1 and his fastball has a little less zip and the Bills’ defensive backs seem to have an extra step on batting down his passes, well, maybe then it’s time to be concerned.
