The Los Angeles Rams reported to training camp at Loyola Marymount University on Tuesday, but were without quarterback Matthew Stafford due to back soreness.
The 37-year-old instead worked with the Rams training staff on the side as Jimmy Garoppolo took first-team quarterback reps in team drills.
Rams head coach Sean McVay doesn’t expect Stafford’s back to be a long-term issue and said the team had already planned to manage his workload, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“Matthew’s feeling good. He had a little bit of soreness in his back that kind of crept up,” McVay said as players reported to Rams Training Camp presented by UNIFY Financial Credit Union. “He’s been throwing, feeling good. It’s not anything that’s necessarily new, something that he’s dealt with before. Going into Year 17, we were going to take a modified approach with him, kind of similar to what we did in the offseason program.”
Stafford will be down during the Rams’ five-day acclimation period and is on board with the team’s plan to keep him as fresh as possible this season:
“(Stafford) feels good about that, I feel good about that,” McVay said. “And ultimately, it’s about having him feel as good as possible, mentally, physically, emotionally, going into Year 17.”
McVay added that Stafford would likely be practicing if it was earlier in his career, but the Rams don’t want to take any chances given his importance to the team:
“If he was a first-year player, then I think you’d say, ‘Man, every rep really matters,'” McVay said. “I think the important thing is having a big-picture perspective with a guy going into Year 17.”
Stafford is entering his 17th NFL season and fifth since being traded to the Rams in 2021. He is due to make $44 million in guaranteed salary this year after the team restructured his contract during the offseason.
Stafford is coming off another solid season that saw him complete 65.8% of his passes for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns in 16 games.
He led the Rams to the playoffs for a second consecutive year and was only a few plays away from potentially knocking off the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Matthew Stafford ranked No. 6 on ESPN top 10 quarterbacks list for 2025 season
In a poll conducted by ESPN, NFL executives, coaches and scouts collectively voted Matthew Stafford as the No. 6 quarterback going into the 2025 season.
The only quarterbacks ranked above Stafford this year are the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes (No. 1), Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels.
