A lot has been made of Matthew Stafford and his elbow issues leading up to the Los Angeles Rams season opener against the Buffalo Bills Thursday evening.
While the Rams conclude that Stafford is perfectly fine, reports indicate that it could be a season-long issue. It didn’t seem to impact the Super Bowl winner out of the gate with Stafford finding reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp on a 23-yard pass to open the game.
By virtue of this completion, Stafford became the 12th quarterback in NFL history to throw for 50,000-plus yards in his career. The former No. 1 pick of the Detroit Lions needed five yards entering the 2022 opener to reach that plateau. He also now joined the legendary Drew Brees in becoming the fastest to that mark (183 games).
Related: Matthew Stafford had an off-season procedure
Matthew Stafford and the most passing yards in NFL history
Stafford, 34, still has a long way to go if he’s going to reach the likes of Tom Brady atop the rankings. Selected by Detroit in the 2009 NFL Draft, he’s thrown for north of 4,000 yards nine times in his career. Even then, it’s not remotely close to what we have seen from the likes of Brady, Brees and Peyton Manning in modern NFL history
- Tom Brady: 84,520
- Drew Brees: 80,358
- Peyton Manning: 71,940
- Brett Favre: 71,838
- Ben Roethlisberger: 64,088
- Philip Rivers: 63,440
- Dan Marino: 61,361
- Matt Ryan: 59,735
- Eli Manning: 57,023
- Aaron Rodgers: 55,360
- John Elway: 51,475
- Matthew Stafford: 50,000 (and counting)
Only two quarterbacks on this list started their careers before the 1990s. It’s a clear indication that the modern NFL has been friendly to quarterbacks.
As for Stafford, he led Los Angeles to a Super Bowl title in his first season with the team after wasting away big time with the Detroit Lions. He’s finally getting recognition for how good he’s been throughout his career.