When it comes to Matthew Stafford’s health, nobody wants to count their chicks before they hatch. The 37-year-old quarterback has only made it through 11.7% of the regular season so far and there is a lot of football left to play in 2025; more if the L.A. Rams make the playoffs.
That being said, here we are two weeks into the season and it is anything but the “old QBs” who are feeling the weight of surviving the most physical team sport in the country:
J.J. McCarthy, high ankle sprain (2-4 weeks), 22 years old
Joe Burrow, turf toe (3+ months), 28 years old
Justin Fields, concussion (???), 26 years old
Brock Purdy, shoulder (2-4 weeks), 25 years old
Jayden Daniels, knee (???), 24 years old
After weeks of uncertainty around Stafford in training camp because he’s a 37-year-old with a bad back, so far the only question about the Rams quarterback through two games is whether or not he’s forcing too many passes to one or two receivers.
The results have still be pretty good:
- Rams are 2-0
- Over 100 passer rating in both games
- 71% completions, 1 INT, 8.8 Y/A
- 107.1 passer rating
Stafford ends Week 2 ranked seventh in passer rating, eighth in completion percentage, fifth in success rate, and sixth in first down throws. So far, we have seen no visible signs of Stafford being 37 or having a back injury.
And notably, the NFL’s old guard of quarterbacks has thus far outlasted some of their junior counterparts:
- Joe Flacco, 40 (most passes in the NFL—because he plays for the Browns)
- Aaron Rodgers, 42 (5 TDs, although he doesn’t quite look that good for the Steelers)
- Russell Wilson, 37 (career-high 450 passing yards in Week 2, current NFL passing yard leader)
- Geno Smith, 35 (We’ll see what happens on MNF, but had 362 yards, 10.6 Y/A in Week 1)
- Dak Prescott, 32 (NFL-high 59 completions)
- Jared Goff, 31 (NFL-best 80.6% completions and 6 TDs)
How about that?
Between these six quarterbacks and Stafford, that’s seven over-30 passers who are off to reasonably good and healthy starts to open the 2025 season. Again, this does NOTHING to guarantee that all or any of them will play all 17 games or not even face the bench at some point (looking at you Flacco, Rodgers).
But the fear of having to start a 37-year-old with a back problem because of injury/age concerns isn’t holding up that well against the reality that whether you’re almost 40 or barely 20 (McCarthy), you play football…And that means you’re always at risk of an injury or being outplayed.
Rams are 2-0.
In a way, on his own, so is Matthew Stafford.
