At 37 years old, Matthew Stafford is not supposed to be the best quarterback in football, but right now he is. Quarterbacks his age are usually managing decline, living off reputation, or trying to survive one last season. Instead, Stafford is leading the league in touchdown passes, shredding defenses with surgical efficiency, and carrying the Los Angeles Rams to the NFC’s top seed. Through 11 games, he has completed about two-thirds of his throws for 2,830 yards, 30 touchdowns, and just 2 interceptions, good for a 113.7 passer rating and top-five QBR.  The Rams are 9–2, riding a six-game win streak, and sit alone at the top of the conference with the best overall efficiency metrics in football.  

If we’re being honest, that’s not just “good for his age.” It’s been historically great. Stafford has gone eight straight games without an interception, has thrown multiple touchdowns in nearly every outing, and has rarely trailed on the scoreboard.  This isn’t nostalgia or sentimentality. It’s a 37 year old playing the most precise, controlled football of his career.

What makes this season so compelling is how clearly it exposes the gap between who Matthew Stafford actually is and how he has been perceived throughout his career. For years, Stafford has been one of the league’s most underappreciated quarterbacks. He’s a Super Bowl champion, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after the 2021 season. He ranks ninth all-time in passing yards, and climbing—and is one of only nine quarterbacks in NFL history to record a 5,000 yard season. Yet despite these accomplishments, he has just two Pro Bowl selections and spent more than a decade treated as an afterthought on national lists of “elite” quarterbacks.

When analysts discuss generational talent, Stafford’s name is often mentioned only as an add-on, if it’s mentioned at all. The evidence has always shown he belongs in that conversation; the narrative simply never kept pace.

Long before Patrick Mahomes made the no look throw part of the weekly highlight reel, Stafford was manipulating safeties with his eyes in Detroit, throwing across his body and into tight windows without ever looking at the target. Lions fans knew it all too well; the broader football public mostly didn’t. He even did a segment years ago breaking down how he developed those no-look throws as a deliberate tool, not a party trick.  Mahomes has turned that style into a brand; Stafford was using it as a survival mechanism on bad teams.

At 37, with the Rams holding the NFC’s top seed and he himself sitting atop the passing touchdown charts, the under-appreciated guy from Detroit suddenly looks like the most important player in the league. A huge part of that transformation is the presence of Davante Adams. Adams gives Stafford a major downfield weapon to pair with Puka Nacua. Two WRs that can win every route on the field, force double teams and still dominate. Their connection has been instant and almost unnervingly precise. Adams has spoken openly about how much fun hes having playing with Stafford, calling him a “killer” who elevates everyone around him. Having a reciever who anticipates throws, manipulates coverages, and thrives on nuance has unlocked parts of his game that were always there but rarely supported. This signing has been essential to the Rams evolution to become the leagues top tier passing attack.

Matthew Stafford’s Hall of Fame Case: How He Measures Up to Canton Criteria

While the Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn’t publish a strict formula, voters consistently weigh a mix of peak performance, longevity, championships, statistical production, postseason impact, and awards like All-Pro and MVP when judging a player’s career. Voters often look at whether a quarterback was ever clearly among the top few at his position, whether he defined an era, and how his resume compares to inductees with similar stats and roles (for example, players like Kurt Warner or Eli Manning, whose Super Bowl runs heavily influenced their cases). In that context, Matthew Stafford’s profile is already strong: he’s a Super Bowl champion (leading the Rams to the title after the 2021 season), ranks top 10 all-time in passing yards and passing touchdowns, and has displayed significant longevity, compiling his numbers over a long career as a full-time starter. His perceived knocks have been a relatively modest number of All-Pro/Pro Bowl honors and many years spent on non-contending teams in Detroit, which limited his postseason resume and visibility. However, Hall voters have increasingly shown they value era-adjusted passing stats, volume production, and playoff success; in that light, Stafford’s Super Bowl ring and cumulative numbers already place him firmly in the serious-candidate tier. If he were to add an NFL MVP award, especially while continuing to climb the all-time leaderboards—it would likely erase most remaining doubt about his peak value, cement the idea that he wasn’t just a compiler but the best player in the league for at least one season, and move his Hall of Fame odds from “strong but debated” to “borderline lock,” even for first-ballot consideration.

An MVP That Reorders the Hierarchy of Greatness

To understand why an MVP would elevate Stafford so dramatically, we need only look at the company it places him in.

Many Hall of Fame quarterbacks already enshrined have accomplished less than Stafford statistically:

• Dan Fouts: lower yardage and TD totals; never won a Superbowl or an MVP
• Joe Namath: cultural icon, statistically mediocre at best
• Jim Kelly: strong resume, but Stafford surpasses him in nearly every metric and Kelly never won a superbowl.
• Warren Moon: prolific, but Stafford’s numbers exceed his

These players are legends, but the Hall of Fame has never required perfection. It has required a combination of excellence, impact, and a body of work that withstands the test of time.

By that standard, Stafford already qualifies.

Where Stafford Ranks All-Time

• Stafford currently sits top 10 all time in NFL career passing yards, with over 62,639 yards, good enough for 9th place in league history.  
• He’s also 9th all time in career passing touchdowns, with 407 touchdown passes, putting him ahead of many Hall of Fame quarterbacks.  
• That kind of longevity paired with a Super Bowl victory in 2021 and high end production is rare: he’s among only a handful of QBs to surpass 60,000 passing yards and 400 passing TDs. All that is missing on his resume is an MVP award.

But an MVP pushes him beyond qualification. It inserts him into a tier reserved for the game’s undeniable greats who have won at least one Superbowl and one regular season MVP award:

• Peyton Manning
• Tom Brady
• Aaron Rodgers
• Patrick Mahomes
• Steve Young
• Brett Favre
• Kurt Warner
• John Elway
• Joe Montana
• Terry Bradshaw
• Ken Stabler

Quarterbacks whose careers contain not only longevity and production, but seasons in which they were unquestionably the best player in football.

An MVP season, especially at 37, after the injuries, after Detroit, after the doubt, would be transformative. It reframes everything. It tells a truer story about the arc of his career: not wasted potential, but long-form excellence culminating in mastery.

The Final Note: What This Season Ultimately Means

This is why the idea of Stafford winning an MVP feels almost symbolic. It would acknowledge what the numbers, the film, and the players around him have known for years. But it wouldn’t define him.

A second Super Bowl? That would.

And maybe that’s the poetry of this moment. Stafford is having an MVP season, statistically, narratively, historically. But the award that would mean the most to him is the one that has nothing to do with him and everything to do with his team. Everything to do with what football actually is: eleven moving parts, all trusting one mind to guide them.

Stafford has the Rams in position to finish something extraordinary.

If they do, the conversation about his legacy won’t be about “if” he’s a Hall of Famer — it will be about how we managed to overlook it for so long.

And an MVP?

That would simply be the chef’s kiss.