WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Don’t expect quarterback Matthew Stafford to be on any type of pitch count this season. At least for now. The NFL is not like baseball where managers can dictate to a pitcher how many pitches he is allowed to throw during a game.
Quarterbacks in the NFL like Stafford are not constricted as by the baseball approach to limit a pitcher’s productivity by the number of pitches he throws. That’s In practicality and in theory unless the guy just can’t throw the football.
Throughout his career, Stafford has been pretty good at throwing the football, completing just over 63 percent of his passes. For Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, situational football dictates whether or not Stafford can fling the pigskin around the field as many times as it calls for.
Stafford got the ball off 49 times in a losing cause to the Detroit Lions in Week 1. Stafford completed 34 of his 49 passes to end the game with a 69 percent clip. His final stat line included 317 yards passing and a touchdown.
McVay said there are no limitations on Stafford when it comes to the passing game.
“No, I wouldn’t say that,” McVay remarked after a team practice on Sept. 13. “You go into games… everybody wants to talk about run-pass balance. There are certain situations and different things that dictate different approaches. Ultimately, I’m interested in how do we most efficiently move the football and score points? That’s the most important thing for us. How that is illustrated and how that unfolds is something that is a case-by-case scenario.”
It’s an excellent point made by McVay. In Week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals, the Rams fell into a 14-0 deficit early and lost the ballgame, 41-10. With the game unraveling at a quickening pace, Stafford and Rams offense was not able to get in sync with one another.
Stafford attempted just 27 passes against the Cardinals. In contrast, the Rams ran the ball 20 times in the road defeat. Though McVay’s team absorbed its second loss of the season, the pass-run ratio was closer than that of the first game.
With a pass-heavy plan in Week 1, the Rams running backs touched the ball 23 times compared to the 49 times Stafford put the ball in the air.
“Now I will say this, the best offenses I’ve been a part of had the ability to do either or. What that looks like is something that I can answer those after the games, but I’m not necessarily looking for a certain number because the defense does have a say in how we best feel like that’s illustrated in regards to moving it and scoring points is a week by week thing,” McVay said.
If Stafford is to average 49 passes per game (based on his Week 1 performance) that would projected to be 5,389 yards through the 17-game regular season. Amazingly, Stafford has only hit the 5,000 passing yards clip only one time during his illustrious career.
The flip side to this equation is a reality check. If Stafford goes out and attempts 49 passes a game he would finish the season with 833 passes thrown. That’s a lot of balls being thrown.
Considering that Stafford has thrown the football 727 (2012) times in one season and over 600 (2011, 2013, 2014, and 2021) times on four other occasions, 800 pass attempts is a doable milestone for the veteran signal-caller.
But at what cost? A tired arm at the end of the season? Outside of his man-on-a-mission season in 2021, his first season with the Rams after being traded from Detroit, Stafford’s other high-flying passing attempts came early in his career.
Stafford and the Rams would later defeat the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI in 2022. In leading the Rams to a Wild Card playoff appearance, Stafford slung the ball around the field 521 times during the 2023 regular season for 3,965 yards and 24 touchdowns.
Last season, Stafford put the ball in the air 40 times or more in three games, including tossing it 55 times in a 23-20 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers. In the team’s first game in 2023, Stafford threw it 38 times in the season-opening win against the Seattle Seahawks.
Stafford is not a young buck anymore. His grizzled, slightly graying beard reflects as much. But he is still a future Hall of Famer who can do things with his passing wizardry that others wish they could do. He can still make all the throws and then some. He is still the unmistakable leader of the Rams.
The Rams will go as far as Stafford will take them, whether he attempts 50 passes in a game or puts the ball in the air a dozen times. It’s about putting his team in the best position to succeed, Stafford said.
“I’m doing whatever’s best for me to try to be physically as ready to go as I possibly can be, try to pick up as much as I can mentally watching the game and how can I create advantages before the snap, after the snap [and] get our guys in good positions to go be successful,” Stafford said before team’s season-opener against Detroit.
“[I] try to make sure that when my opportunities to make plays come that I can still do that, and I feel like I can. [I] feel like I did a decent clip last year and am looking forward to the challenge of trying to do it again this year,” Stafford added.
Top Image Caption: Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) looks downfield to throw the football against the Arizona Cardinals in an NFL game played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sept. 15, 2024. Photo credit: Los Angeles Rams
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com