MVP ‘solidifies’ Matthew Stafford as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, says Ryan Clark
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Matthew Stafford is now an NFL MVP.
On Thursday night, the former Georgia standout won one of the closest MVP races in NFL history. At 37, he also became one of the oldest players in league history to win the award. The following morning, ESPN’s Ryan Clark said the honor solidified Stafford as one of the 10 best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
“It solidifies him as a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Clark said on First Take. “It puts him in the top 10 of quarterbacks, in my opinion, that’s ever played this game. … They absolutely got it right with Matthew Stafford, and his career, to me, is now solidified in a way it never would have been had he stayed in Detroit.”
To say that Stafford’s move to the Rams in 2021 rejuvenated his career feels almost like an understatement. In 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions — the franchise that drafted him first overall in 2009 — he made 1 Pro Bowl and 3 playoff appearances. The Lions never made it past the Wild Card round.
Stafford had a 5,000-yard passing season in 2011, when he won AP Comeback Player of the Year, and routinely put up numbers, but his teams experienced little success.
In 2021, Stafford’s Rams went 12-5 and won the Super Bowl. In 2023, Stafford was named to another Pro Bowl and finished eighth in MVP voting. This season, Stafford led the Rams back to the NFC Championship Game and earned his first All-Pro selection.
Stafford ranks sixth all-time in career passing yards. Fifth place on that list (Aaron Rodgers) has 4 MVP awards, 4 All-Pro nods, and a Super Bowl MVP award. Seventh place (Ben Roethlisberger) is a 2-time Super Bowl champion.
Stafford has better career numbers than guys like Dan Marino (10th), Eli Manning (11th), John Elway (12th), or Joe Montana (24th), but those 4 quarterbacks share 6 first-team All-Pro selections, 3 MVP awards, and 8 Super Bowl rings between them.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
