Shortly after the Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI, few would have anticipated the season Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford would experience in 2022.
Here the pair was, coming off the best season of their professional careers, with McVay becoming the youngest head coach with a Lombardi Trophy to his name.
Stafford, well, he finally won the first playoff game of his career. Only we all know it didn’t end there. Not only did he prove he was capable of leading his team to the postseason, Stafford proved he could actually win the trophy.
Unfortunately, that run of fun was short-lived, as the Rams lost the first game of their title-defending season. It didn’t really improve from there. Los Angeles struggled through several injuries to key players such as Cooper Kupp and even Stafford himself, who had already been banged up coming into the year.
Missing time is uncharacteristic for the 14-year pro, who’s been forced out of just eight games in the past 11 seasons, making 169 starts in that span. Yet, Stafford suffered a concussion in Week 9 and once again in Week 10, only in the latter instance, he also suffered a spinal contusion, forcing him to be placed on Injured Reserve, where he appears set to miss the remainder of the season.
Any time a player suffers multiple head injuries in addition to damage to his neck within the same season, questions begin to emerge. Just how bad are the 34-year-old’s injuries, and could they impact his playing future?
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Sean McVay not concerned about Matthew Stafford’s health
Coach McVay addressed such concerns about Stafford when speaking to the media on Friday afternoon, and it doesn’t sound like he’s losing any sleep over the matter. Specifically, McVay was asked if Stafford is looking at another offseason surgery.
“No, he’ll be good. To my knowledge, there’s nothing like that that’s going to be required or necessary. I think it’ll be great for Matthew to be able to have a healthy offseason and do a lot of the things that I think he’ll feel good about being able to do.”
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay on Matthew Stafford avoiding surgery
Last offseason was certainly unique for the Super Bowl-winning QB. Starting this year, Stafford was coming off a season in which he threw the most passes of his NFL career. Extending his season a couple more months, thanks to the Rams’ deep postseason run, not only added a bit more mileage on his arm but also left less time to recover and begin conditioning for the next season.
This time around, with the Rams on track to miss the playoffs as they close out the 2022 season after starting 4-9, Stafford should have plenty of time to prepare his body for another grueling year of battles on the gridiron. At least, according to his coach, Stafford won’t have to recover from surgery too.
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