Matthew Stafford has not had the cleanest bill of health in the last two years. Before the 2022 season, he was dealing with an elbow injury that prevented him from having a normal offseason of work. He then suffered a concussion during the season and was eventually placed on injured reserve due to a back injury.
This year, the injuries have piled up again. He suffered a hip injury earlier in the season and missed Week 9 with a torn UCL in his right thumb, an injury he’s had in the past. Stafford is as tough as anyone in the NFL, but at 35 years old, these injuries could be taking a toll on him.
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham certainly believes that to be true. In a piece where NFL experts and writers made predictions for the second half of the season, Wickersham said he believes Stafford will retire after this season.
These will be the final games of Matthew Stafford‘s career
To be clear, I have no inside information. But I watched how ready and optimistic Stafford was during the Rams’ training camp, and this season, while a known rebuild, has been brutal. It’s the second straight season in which he has gotten beat up every week, too, taking a sack on 7.5% of his dropbacks since the start of 2022. He has banked in the neighborhood of $300 million during his career. He has won a Super Bowl. And he has numbers that will merit serious Canton consideration. So factoring all that in, my prediction is that Stafford calls it a career after the season. — Seth Wickersham, NFL writer
Before this season began, some believed it would be Stafford’s last in the NFL. He’s 35 years old and has gotten knocked around due to poor protection along the offensive line. While the Rams improved in that area a bit this season, Stafford has taken 22 hits in seven and a half games.
Sean McVay sounds confident his quarterback will return in Week 11 after the team’s bye, but hopefully he can finish the season healthy because he’s gotten beaten up a little bit too much the last two seasons.
