LA Rams Matthew Stafford can shatter team’s passing record

The LA Rams single-season passing record is held by none other than quarterback Kurt Warner. In fact, the Top-Five single-season passing leaders are either Kurt Warner or Jared Goff until Jim Everett cracks the list at five. That record of 4,830 yards passing in one season could be shattered by a quarterback who has yet to throw a single pass for the LA Rams.

Matthew Stafford.

To be honest, he has already done so twice before, albeit as the quarterback for the Detroit Lions. In 2011, he threw 421 of 663 passes for 5,038 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions.  He followed that up in 2012 by throwing 435 of 727 passes for 4,967 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.

Over the course of his career, head coach Sean McVay called 626 passing plays for Jared Goff in 2019. While they were the most passing attempts in Goff’s career, it would fall as only the fourth most in Stafford’s career. News Flash: The 2021 NFL season will be 17 games, so the record books for single-season passing records are pretty much all up for grabs this year.

Los Angeles Rams

Warner also holds the single-season TD passes record with 41. Stafford has already matched that number with the Lions.

In McVay’s offense, Stafford will likely be throwing from 660 to 720 passing attempts (I tend to estimate he will be at the high end of the range). At a completion rate of the past two seasons at 64 percent, here are some likely numbers: 458 of 710 passes for 5,490 yards, 42 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.

Too optimistic? Well, there will be 17 games this season, and there is little chance that McVay will have pushed so hard to acquire a top-ranked passer like Stafford to have him hand off the ball or toss checkdowns.

If the Rams are to have a real chance at competing in the Super Bowl, the single-season passing record for yards and touchdowns will need to be shattered by Stafford. This is not a luxury nor a bold unrealistic statement. It’s just the basic math that comes with the 17 game season. Stafford was brought in to be better than Jared Goff, and Goff holds second place in the record books.

To do so, Stafford will need to average 285 yards passing and 2.5 touchdowns per game. Can he do it? Yes. Will he do it? Let’s hope so. Because if the Rams have any hope of playing host to Super Bowl LVI, he will have to.