p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> <\/p>\n
MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 It will be difficult for Matthew Stafford<\/a> to top his 2025 performance.<\/p>\n Despite not taking a training camp snap because of a back problem, the Rams<\/a>\u2019 veteran quarterback passed for a career-best 46 touchdowns and won his first NFL most valuable player award.<\/p>\n About the only significant milestone that eluded Stafford: A second Super Bowl title.<\/p>\n That is what Stafford and the star-studded Rams will be chasing when they start the season on Thursday against the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stafford, 38, is entering his 18th NFL season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels more normal than it did last year,\u201d he said. \u201cI definitely feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n Last season, the Rams led the NFL in offense and scoring, but they lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game.<\/p>\n The lineup returns intact, with receivers Puka Nacua<\/a> and Davante Adams<\/a>, running backs Kyren Williams<\/a> and Blake Corum and tight ends Tyler Higbee, Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and Terrance Ferguson providing Stafford with multiple weapons.<\/p>\n Stafford\u2019s workload during training camp and preseason practices were managed by the sports performance staff, but he had plenty of opportunity to connect with Adams, a luxury they did not enjoy last season. It took the veterans about six games to establish a consistent connection, and Adams caught a league-best 14 touchdown passes.<\/p>\n This season?<\/p>\n \u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit, that\u2019s what they say,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWe know what he can do and I think we know what I can do as well and with more time together. … I got a feeling that, God willing, we go out there and stay healthy and be able to do what we do as playmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ll like what we see.\u201d<\/p>\n Coach Sean McVay likes what he saw from Stafford during the run-up to the opener.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen your quarterback is feeling good going into a season, that\u2019s a big deal,\u201d McVay said.<\/p>\n The Rams were scheduled to leave Los Angeles on Tuesday night and arrive in Melbourne the day before the game. The Rams took a similar tact last season, when they traveled from Baltimore to London the day before the game and then routed the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel confident in the way we\u2019re going about it,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cGuys will be ready to rock and roll come Friday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 It will be difficult for Matthew Stafford to top his 2025 performance. Despite not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[11856,10834,217,73861,423,63,771,6914,11706,10947,101,27628,103,102,278,104,106,105,315,181125,181126],"class_list":["post-459247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-49er","tag-davante-adams","tag-day","tag-first-nfl","tag-game","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-melbourne","tag-ram","tag-rams","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49er","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-season","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-time","tag-training-camp-snap","tag-veteran-quarterback"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}