Tom Pelissero on How Long Rams QB Matthew Stafford Could Play in the NFL

Matthew Stafford is about to begin roughly his 18th NFL season, and the question hanging over a loaded Los Angeles Rams team is not whether he can still play. It is how much longer he wants to. Tom Pelissero laid out the case for a quarterback who just authored the best year of his career.

The spark, fittingly, came from a peer. On the Green Light podcast with Chris Long, Stafford recounted a conversation with Drew Brees before last season.

"He was like, how old are you again? I was like, I'm 37," Stafford said. "He was like, you might have your best 5 years of your career coming up. That kind of lit a fire under me."

Stafford then went out and won his first NFL MVP. What few realized at the time, Pelissero noted, was how close it came to unraveling. The shoulder issue downplayed all summer as rest could have landed Stafford on injured reserve, with Sean McVay prepared to stash him to start the season.

Pelissero's larger point is that quarterbacks survive on their minds long after their bodies fade. He pointed to Peyton Manning winning a Super Bowl after the 2015 season "in spite of himself," effectively benched until Brock Osweiler's struggles forced him back, lobbing passes like a T-shirt cannon and throwing a beat early because he no longer had the arm. Tom Brady reshaped his body to stay healthy. Brees, who survived a frightening 2005 shoulder injury with the Chargers to become an MVP and record-breaker, still spent his final years unable to throw 40 yards.

So with Stafford, who has battled both back and shoulder trouble, it comes down to health.

"If Stafford stays healthy, there's no reason to think this guy can't play into his 40s," Pelissero said, citing Aaron Rodgers as proof, even if Rodgers "has not played like Aaron Rodgers in five years." The danger is the unpredictable stuff. Pelissero, who has his own back history, joked he slipped in the shower that morning and braced for the worst. Those injuries, and any hit to a throwing shoulder or elbow, "pop up over and over again."

He also poured cold water on reading too much into Stafford's offseason extension. In the simplest terms, the Rams tacked on a year, handed Stafford $5 million in upside this season and a $5 million roster bonus next year, with rolling guarantees and "funky fake years," including a dummy $100 million figure in 2029 he will never see. The real purpose was time. The old deal would have voided right after the Super Bowl, slamming the Rams' cap, so the new structure buys both sides until mid-March each year to decide.

The human piece may matter most. Pelissero described Stafford, who has made roughly $400 million, as one of the more normal, good-hearted quarterbacks he deals with, a man with a wife and four young daughters who stood on stage with him at the MVP ceremony.

"He doesn't strike me as a guy who wants to play until the very last second," Pelissero said. The body can keep going. The decision is the variable.