Former No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford is entering his 15th season as a starting NFL quarterback and his third with the Los Angeles Rams.
Not even two years ago, Stafford took the 2021 Rams to the Super Bowl, where they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals. Fast forward to now and the Rams will field one of the youngest teams in the NFL, if not the youngest during the 2023 season.
For Stafford, he’s not viewing that as a negative. His head coach Sean McVay has expressed how excited he is about the energy the young guys are bringing to practice. Stafford echoed that sentiment recently.
“It is really fun being around all this youth, all these guys that bring a bunch of energy,” Stafford said. “They’re hungry to learn which is awesome and I think bring their own personalities to our team, which is going be a lot of fun.”
I’m not sure if you can consider him young, but one rookie on the Rams team is former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, who will serve as the backup to Stafford in 2023. Bennett has expressed how grateful he is to have the leadership of Stafford to help guide him through the transition into the NFL.
“He remembers what it was like whenever he was me, a younger guy not really having a full concept of it,” Bennett said. “And so he dumbs it down for me and just says, ‘look here, look there, blah, blah, blah.”
“So that’s where listening to him and how he applies the simple stuff to the complex stuff (helps).”
But just because Stafford’s surrounded by young players does not mean he is going to change his leadership style. A Super Bowl-winning NFL veteran, Stafford knows what it takes to succeed in the pros. And he says he plans on just being himself.
“You know, I’m going to continue to be myself and lead the way that I know how, as I know those other guys will as well,” Stafford said last week…
But you know, as far as my role, I feel like as the quarterback, you’re always the leader of the team and just doing everything I can to try to get us going in the right direction.”
The team may be young, but they’ll rely on leadership of Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald as they have in the past.
