Matthew Stafford's legacy entering his 18th NFL season as reigning MVP 'GMFB'
"Good Morning Football" recounts the legacy that has been left so far by Los Angeles Rams quarterback and the NFL's reigning Most Valuable Player Matthew Stafford.
Video Transcript
We'll start in LA where our friends Seth and Mante are right now.
Matthew Stafford, the reigning MVP and the Rams.
Look at that.
We got real footage.
This is not from the archives.
This just happened, Willie.
He was out.
He looks great.
38 years old, won the Most Valuable Player award.
He's doing the back foot kind of gooseneck thing.
Man, this team was so good last year, and there's, there's a hot take that Seattle hates, that the Rams were the best team in the NFL last year.
The scoreboard says otherwise.
But you don't really see a team better than that Rams team not make the Super Bowl.
Will they make it this year?
We're headed into 2026 and we got this MVP, we got this coach, we got all kinds of things, guys, and what we also have is a good old fashioned off-season discussion on that man.
Matthew Stafford, how are we feeling about him right now in the grand scheme of things, his past, present, and future, and let's say the Rams do cash it in.
Sean McVeigh gets back to the Super Bowl, Matthew Stafford gets back, and Matthew Stafford wins his 2nd Super Bowl.
It's a big if, but what if it happens?
Where does he land in our mind in terms of stacking up amongst the all-time greats in his era and in every era?
What do you guys got?
LA?
Oh man, I mean, do we have to put the caveat on if he wins another Super Bowl, if he wins another MVP?
I mean, the dude is already there in my opinion.
I mean, we, we went back.
I, I, I was thinking about this before last season.
We were talking about Matthew Stafford and what his legacy is, and we went around the table and we talked about what's a word to describe Matthew Stafford.
I said underrated.
I said he's underrated.
OK?
I looked back at the stats here.
He spent 11.
Seasons with the Detroit Lions, of course he wasn't winning an MVP.
Of course he wasn't winning a Super Bowl.
If he was on a good franchise, a quality, well owned, well produced franchise like the Los Angeles Rams, if he had that for his entire career, Sean McVeigh, if he had any sort of stability, I mean, the dude had Calvin Johnson to throw the football to for what, like 5 seasons, Mantire or something like that, that's it, and that's it.
That's all he had.
So if.
He had landed anywhere else in the draft, if he wasn't the best quarterback coming out of Georgia that year and they had to have him, and he would have just left at any point, dude, we would, we wouldn't even be having this conversation because he would already be in the top one of, if not the greatest quarterback of all time.
I mean the numbers are there.
It's a beautiful thing, but you watch him play, especially at this late stage of his career.
I mean, he knows he doesn't have that many years left and he is putting out his best work.
Last year, arguably his best season of all time.
Obviously he didn't pass for as many yards and he didn't hit 5000, but the TD numbers were there.
Interceptions were low.
He was so efficient.
He is already, already manti in, in the top 10, in my opinion, greatest quarterbacks to ever play professional football.
I love that.
I love that, Seth.
You talked about conversations.
We had a conversation yesterday when we were talking about Justin Herbert and our, our brother Kyle.
mentioned the elites, right, the elites at the quarterback position, superstar.
When you think of the word elite at the quarterback position, for some reason, I, I, I'll ask you, Seth, does Matt Stafford's name come to mind?
I think if you think about all the groups, for you, I know, but for most groups, Matt Stafford isn't the first person that you think of.
Like there are, there are 3 guys, 3 names that I think people say that's Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and, and Lamar Jackson.
This is since 2023, guys.
These are the past, that's the past yardage, that's the past TDs, those are the wins.
If you're talking about MVPs, Matt Stafford has one.
The only one that has more MVPs than him is Lamar Jackson.
He has the same amount of uh Super Bowls as Patrick Mahomes.
So if you're looking at the elites of today's world, that's where Matt Stafford stacks up since 2023.
If you wanna talk about the elites of all time, let me show you this.
This is the elites of all.
If you wanna talk about an elite group, Matt Stafford is in that, he's at that altitude.
So my biggest question, and Seth, you alluded to this, is why is it that in 2026 when you, the elite quarterback conversation comes up, Matthew Stafford's name isn't the first one that you say, and it should be, and I think it goes back to what you said, Seth, as for the 1st 11 seasons.
They weren't winning a lot of games whereas you look at Josh Josh Allen, you look at Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, right when they hit the NFL, they're winning games, they're going to AFC championships, they're battling in the playoffs.
So I think a lot of it has to do, Willie with.
The Detroit Lions and their inability to win games, even though Matt Stafford is throwing for a whole bunch of yards, throwing for a whole bunch of touchdowns, and it's just so happened that he's getting better as he ages like fine wine.
He's going to 18th season.
Stay off the staff con, Matthew.
Stay off of the staff con.
We need you on the field, not in that little bus you had last year.
Stay on the football field.
