The Spotlight Is Off Matthew Stafford: Is That A Good Thing?

Matthew Stafford is both the reigning MVP and for the moment only the second-most notable quarterback on his own roster. That could be a first in NFL history.

With the draft selection of Ty Simpson, the Los Angeles Rams have shifted the balance interest away from the 38-year-old MVP who is currently negotiating an adjusted contract and towards the rookie who might not play for a year. Or two. Or ever.

Maybe that will actually help Stafford win another MVP award. Which, if so, might not bode well for Simpson.

The focus on Simpson, but perhaps even more so Sean McVay and Les Snead for their appearances and the decision that went into the draft, has been so intense that you might have forgotten L.A.’s quarterback was the MVP last year. Since when have Snead and McVay been so concerned with making media appearances after a draft to explain their decision?

Les Snead was on The Rich Eisen Show to explain the thought process between pick 13.

Colin Cowherd had McVay on the show on Wednesday to affirm that he told Stafford ahead of time and that the veteran QB was a “stud” about it.

For some reason it has become very important to McVay that fans know that in fact he was not upset about the pick despite appearances (if you think you’re alone in being surprised by reaction, you’re not: Mike LaFleur said he was shocked to see “Mr. Grumpy” in the press conference too) and also that the Rams warned Stafford ahead of time that Simpson was going to be their draft pick.

Snead and McVay have also both had to explain that yes, they’re still friends and working in lockstep. He’s done it on Rich Eisen’s show and the Pat McAfee Show and he even went on Barstool. Snead is spending more time in the media than someone who actually has a podcast.

And the day after the first round, McVay immediately went on ESPN to explain why he was acting that way after the draft and that it was all to…

“Protect” the reigning MVP…

This is perhaps because comparable examples of recent memory, including the Packers drafting Jordan Love in 2020 and the Falcons drafting Michael Penix in 2024, were followed by stories about Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins being caught off guard and surprised by those decisions. Rodgers was open about being “ticked off” by the pick (though he immediately congratulated Love and was very involved in the mentorship angle) and Cousins was rumored to be pretty upset two years ago.

Did those picks actually help those quarterbacks?

Interestingly, Rodgers won MVP in each of the next two seasons — he later said that winning back-to-back MVPs caught the Packers off guard and forced them to keep him around longer than they had planned to — but Green Bay still failed to reach the Super Bowl.

Ironically, one of the reasons that the Packers couldn’t break past the NFC playoffs during those seasons was that Rodgers didn’t have enough weapons outside of Davante Adams.

Maybe taking the pressure off of Aaron Rodgers to be the team’s star actually aided the quarterback in becoming his best self.

Despite not drafting a receiver with that first round pick, Rodgers saw his touchdowns per season go up from 25.5 in the previous two seasons before 2020 to 42.5 in the two seasons after the pick.

Rodgers was able to play one more season with the Packers after winning the 2021 MVP but was traded to the Jets after Green Bay stumbled to 8-9 in 2022. The upside to drafting Love was that Rodgers was sort of catapulted into the position of being the NFL’s “unwanted superstar” by the fact that Green Bay actually wanted to move on but couldn’t because he was the best player in the league despite being in his late-30s.

Now you’ve got Matthew Stafford, the reigning MVP, and he’s almost the same age that Rodgers was when the Packers drafted Jordan Love.

There is, however, the question of whether or not what’s good for Stafford is good for Simpson.

Do the Rams know that Stafford plans to retire in 2027?

If Stafford does not retire in 2027, just as Rodgers did not retire in 2021 (and still hasn’t five years later), just as Brett Favre did not retire in 2006 (and wouldn’t call it a career until 2011), then what is the best case scenario for the Rams organization and Ty Simpson?

McVay and Snead are on a full-blown media tour explaining that Matthew Stafford is still the face of the franchise, that they have no reason to believe he’s at the end of his career, and that they’re going to give him whatever he wants to continue to stay with the Rams. Kind of an interesting gameplan to draft a quarterback if you think that Stafford can win the next couple of MVPs and Super Bowls…

Since he won Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021, Simpson has started 15 games and thrown a total of 523 passes.

If Stafford takes every snap next season — as the team hopes will happen barring garbage time snaps when the Rams are way ahead — Ty Simpson will have played one football season over five years.

It’s reminiscent of Trey Lance playing one year at North Dakota State, then sitting for the 49ers as a rookie, then missing most of the 2022 season with an injury. It’s reminiscent of Anthony Richardson playing one year at Florida and only starting 15 games over the first three seasons of his NFL career.

Stafford gets the motivation to play three more years for the Rams and doesn’t get injured, then Simpson ends up only starting those 15 games at Alabama over a 7-year span.

That’s more like Matt Cassel, who started 0 games in college and 0 games for the Patriots over the first three years of his career prior to replacing Tom Brady in 2008.Or Jimmy Garoppolo starting just 10 games over the first five years of his NFL career.

If Stafford doesn’t need any help to win MVP and a Super Bowl next season, if the team is giving him a long-term pass to play for the Rams as long as he wants, when does that start to benefit Ty Simpson?

And is Stafford actually OK with the pick?

The fact that there’s such a heavy push to “protect” Stafford and that he’s “OK with it” and “negotiations are going great”, it’s almost like…

Me thinks thou doth protest too much.

The Rams did not ask Stafford’s permission to draft Simpson and they did not confer with Stafford on who he would like the team to draft. They went to him and told him, “This is who we’re drafting. We good, bro?”

For Stafford, it’s easy to go along with a plan because it’s not his plan and he has no power. His only power is what happens during these contract negotiations to secure his services for 2026 and potentially beyond, which is why the Simpson pick could actually make the talks more complicated and extended.

To some degree, McVay and Snead come off as worried about the optics of the Simpson pick and what it could mean for the MVP of the league.

It might actually help Stafford be better because the next few months will be all about Ty Simpson and not him. He can focus on work and there will be less attention from the media on him than there’s ever been before during his experience as an NFL quarterback.

On the other hand, the longer Simpson serves as that distraction, the harder it becomes for Stafford to prove that he still deserves to be the starter.

For now, Stafford remains the man. But Simpson is something that could be far more dangerous: The man to be.