LOS ANGELES — While the football world was full of speculation, wondering whether his disappearance into a red-light therapy airstream spelled the end of his career, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford’s summer was filled primarily with uncertainty.
Uncertainty about what his 17th season would look like. Whether or not the aggravated disk in his back would cooperate enough to allow him to practice, let alone let him start in Week 1.
“It’s touch and go, we didn’t really know. We weren’t getting some of the responses that we were hoping for for the back,” head coach Sean McVay said. “You’re close to saying, alright, are we gonna just rest you and maybe you just take the first four weeks and we revisit it? So that we don’t have this imaginary timetable that causes unnecessary anxiety.”
After conversations with the training staff, with McVay and the rest of the decision-makers around the Rams, Stafford finally decided to see what happened in a practice. Initially it was only supposed to be individual drills. Then, when that felt good, he found himself competing in 11-on-11.
And to hear McVay tell it, Stafford hasn’t looked back since then.
“There were some lean moments, touch and go there for a little bit,” Stafford said. “A lot of treatments and things that I did to try and help myself get to this point. Didn’t know if I would get there. I went out there, it was kind of wait and see what happens. Luckily, it turned out pretty good.”
As in, a season in which he led the NFL in touchdown passes (46) and passing yards (4,707). A season in which he garnered the first serious league MVP consideration of his career.
And, most importantly to Stafford, the opportunity that is ahead of the fifth-seeded Rams this weekend, opening the postseason against the Carolina Panthers on Saturday in Charlotte.
He’ll go into battle this weekend leading a team that McVay believes has been instilled with Stafford’s character after watching him battle just to get back on the field this summer.
“I don’t think anybody but him can really understand what he’s overcome, what it takes to maintain where he’s at,” McVay said. “There’s a lot at stake but, man, what a guy that you just watch that he is totally present, he is enjoying the moment. And I think that’s when we’re at our best and I think this team has taken on a lot of the great traits – the toughness mentally and physically and just the overall enjoyment for the chance to go compete but also the ability to celebrate your teammates. He’s elevated everybody that he’s around.”
He’ll get another chance to display that mental toughness against a Carolina team that intercepted him twice in November, ending his NFL record streak of 28 touchdowns without throwing an interception.
And then the physical, too, of playing a second consecutive game on a six-day week.
“The adrenaline will be great. We’ll be ready to rock and roll; it’s playoff football, let’s go,” Stafford said. “I’m just happy to be playing this weekend and getting an opportunity to go play.”
In a year in which Week 1 was so in doubt, Stafford certainly appreciates the task in front of him during wild-card weekend.
“I just don’t take any of these opportunities for granted,” Stafford said. “I really do appreciate and love playing this game week in and week out, and I don’t take it for granted because I’ve had years where I either haven’t been able to play in the playoffs or I haven’t been able to play in certain games because of injury. So it feels great to be at this point. It’s on us to just continue to be the team that we’ve been, prepare the way we know how to prepare, go out there and play and then see where that takes us.”
BRIEFLY
The Rams activated safety Quentin Lake from injured reserve and placed linebacker Shaun Dolac on IR after he injured his PCL in Week 18. McVay said he did not know whether or not Dolac will need surgery.
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