Matthew Stafford is 38, coming off a season that looked like a throwback to his peak, and the Rams are treating him like exactly what he is: the center of everything.
That’s the simplest way to explain why he sits at No. 1 in the Rams’ countdown of the team’s top 25 players for the 2026 season. After leading the NFL in touchdown passes last year with a career-high 46 and winning his first MVP award, Stafford enters 2026 as the player who can swing the entire season one way or the other.
The Rams have already committed to him with a contract signed earlier this offseason, and the message is clear: this team is going only as far as Stafford can carry it. That’s true for plenty of NFL teams at quarterback, but it feels even more pronounced in Los Angeles because of the way Sean McVay has built the offense around Stafford’s ability to process, improvise, and punish defenses.
He’s still one of the league’s best at making something out of nothing. Stafford can work outside the structure of the play, make the playcaller look right when McVay is wrong, and attack defenses from all kinds of arm angles.
He throws no-look passes, he stretches the field horizontally and vertically, and he keeps defenses busy defending every blade of grass. In the fourth quarter, he remains one of the most dangerous quarterbacks around.
The Rams are also counting on him to help bring Ty Simpson along. Simpson, drafted 13th overall, lands in a strong spot as a rookie, and the team wants him learning behind Stafford rather than being forced into action. Stetson Bennett is also in the quarterback room, now in his fourth year in the system.
That said, if Stafford were to miss time, Simpson would not be a shocking answer. The Rams are better equipped at backup quarterback than they were in 2022, when Stafford’s absence was much harder to absorb. Even so, there’s a big difference between surviving a game or two and getting through a long stretch without him.
The contrast with the Jimmy Garoppolo years is part of the story here. Garoppolo may not have matched Stafford’s ceiling, but he could at least keep the offense moving. That kind of safety net is gone now, and the Rams know it.
Heading into 2026, expectations in Los Angeles are as high as they were in 2021. Stafford doesn’t have to repeat an MVP season for the Rams to get where they want to go, but they do need him playing like a top-five quarterback. If he struggles or misses time, those goals get a lot harder to reach.
That’s why the Rams’ Super Bowl hopes are tied so tightly to Stafford. The team traded for Trent McDuffie and Myles Garrett to give him the best possible supporting cast while he’s still performing at a high level, and McVay has shaped the offense around the way Stafford sees the game.
He lifts the players around him. He makes receivers better.
And if the Rams win it all in 2026, Stafford will be a huge reason why.
The Rams have given him the pieces. Now it’s on him to turn that into a title run.
In Other News...
Stetson Bennett Faces Defining Rams Camp With Backup Job Pressure
Training camp is about to put the Rams backup quarterback picture under the microscope, with Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson both trying to carve out a clear role behind Matthew Stafford. The two have reportedly looked similar through OTAs, and the team is expecting growth from both as the competition shifts into a more revealing setting.
Bennett, entering his fourth year, has a little more urgency attached to this summer because his contract situation is moving toward a decision point after the season. The Rams are also weighing what kind of value he really has in the long run, which makes camp more than just a depth chart battle and gives Bennett a chance to strengthen his case before the team has to decide how seriously it wants to invest in him. [Read more 🡒]
Rams Finally Have Their Secondary Security Blanket Back
The Rams have spent the past couple of seasons trying to rebuild the kind of stability they once had on the back end, and adding Trent McDuffie gives them a very different look in the cornerback room. Pairing him with Jaylen Watson gives Los Angeles a more flexible foundation, and McDuffies ability to line up outside or move around the field should give Chris Shula more ways to shape the defense week to week.
What makes this addition especially notable is the way McDuffie has already established himself as more than just another coverage body. His versatility and performance metrics point to a player who can change the feel of a secondary, and for a Rams defense that has been searching for a true anchor at corner, that matters. The bigger question now is how quickly Los Angeles can turn that upgrade into something that shows up on Sundays. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos Finally Have An O Line Question Fans Want Answered
The guard market keeps getting more expensive, and that makes the Rams interior worth a closer look. Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson have given Los Angeles one of the leagues most stable combinations inside, the kind of pairing that matters more every time another team pays up to protect the middle of its line. Avila settled in at guard and held up well, while Dotson has continued to look like the sort of veteran starter who can anchor a playoff-caliber front.
For a team built to contend, that kind of continuity is a real edge, and it helps explain why the Rams are being mentioned with the NFLs best guard tandems heading into 2026. The question now is how long that setup lasts, because Dotsons next contract situation is already looming and the market for guards keeps rising. If Los Angeles wants to keep its interior strength intact, it may have to make a decision sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]