Sean McVay on Matthew Stafford’s “Total Command” of the Rams’ Offense

Sean McVay on Matthew Stafford’s “Total Command” of the Rams’ Offense | The Rich Eisen Show

Stafford is just unbelievable. I can’t believe this was a guy who had back pain in the in the summer that made people think he might not answer a bell. He’s been maybe the best he’s ever been. What’s it been like from your perspective? He’s been awesome. You know what’s funny is uh he was telling me before the game that a couple of the coaches on the other staff said, “Yeah, that was really nice of Shawn uh to basically fake a back injury for you so that you could just miss camp.” He’s like, “What the hell are you talking about? The back injury was real.” You know, I think there’s this narrative that we were just faking it because he’s played so well. He’s been awesome though, Rich. I think the first thing I would say is he’s done a great job of taking care of himself. He is feeling good, but he’s in total command. And this guy enjoys the game. He certainly doesn’t have to be playing. He enjoys his teammates. He enjoys competing. I think he’s seeing the field really well. I don’t think there’s ever been a time that there’s more multiple looks that defenses are presenting than what we’ve seen over the last year. and and that’s a credit to just the you know the volume that people are carrying and how hard it is to get a beat on what they’re doing but to be 17-2 touchdowns the picks and he’s really had a lot of plays where you know they’re not turnover worthy so I mean that’s a real stat sometimes you can see guys get away with that but he’s a stud and uh I’m certainly grateful and I’m going to cherish every moment for however long he wants to play but I don’t take for granted how lucky I am to be able to coach a guy like him well we had Dvonte Adams in our uh our broadcast meeting Zoom after we chatted with you uh last week, Sean, and he told Curt Warner that um Rogers is the quarterback with the best arm he’s ever had, but he said that Stafford’s superpower, the best he’s ever seen at manipulating a defense with his eyes, with his um with his mannerisms. Uh what what have you seen on that front that you could sort of add to that? He’s incredible. Well, he’s he’s the best in both for what I’ve been around and and he is he’s just so special. I I think he’s so smart. I think that’s the one thing, and you and I have talked about this before, Rich. He’s obviously, you know, well respected for this gunslinger, this tough competitor. He takes hits, he gets up. Um, you know, but he’s so smart. I think that’s the one thing people don’t realize how hard he works at it, how he’s accumulated this knowledge of inventory that he’s able to replicate from years. But he’ll be the first to tell you when he first started, you know, there’s so many ways that Calvin Johnson was getting doubled in creative ways that coverage contours played out and he wants to throw to him and they know it. And I’ve got to figure out a way to be able to do that when there’s usually two or three people paying attention to him. And I think a lot of the manipulation of coverage and understanding how to move people opposite of where you’re trying to get them to go was foundationally started from him and Calvin playing together. But I think that’s an athletic intuition that he has that’s pretty unique and special and it’s a credit to him and I remember Momes uh you know mentioning to me when I saw him the the balls that he had to be able to bring that out. It’s one thing to do it when you got the games in hand but to do it in crunch time on a game-winning drive to win the Super Bowl and now it’s it’s kind of been old hat and uh and he has fun with it and and everybody knows he’s doing it and he still finds a way to be able to get people to move to where he wants. He’s special. What’s your collaboration with him like coming up with a game plan? What’s that like? Well, I’ll tell you what. We went to uh it’s it’s really what do you like and that’s what we’re going to do. But we went to we went to do a walkthrough at Wembley and uh you know, obviously the Jags go play there, but you know, you got people with Jags t-shirts on and and you know, I think Gladstone might have been in the uh the upper deck suits when we were walking through on Saturday. So, I told the players, I said, you know, we’re not going to do much stuff here. This just feels a little weird. I said, “Why don’t you make up a cool play? You make up a cool trick play, Matthew.” He makes up a trick play in about 10 seconds. And I’m thinking to myself, Rich, shows you really what an idiot I am. That would have taken me eight hours to come up with on a Tuesday. He comes up with it in 10 seconds. I’m thinking, man, I really don’t know what my value is here. When we’ve got a guy like him, but it truly is a collaboration. He um he just has such a capacity and an understanding and an ownership of what we’re trying to get done. he can watch film and say, “These are the types of spots or areas we want to get to.” Um, and when you have a guy like that, he can get you in and out of stuff. He obviously has the autonomy to be able to get in and out of different looks um at all times based on the different situations that arise. And I don’t take for granted how lucky I am to have somebody that when you make a decision that’s not necessarily right, he can make it right with the autonomy and ownership he has and his ability to be able to get it communicated to his other 10 teammates in real time. Well, I’d have my host card taken away if I didn’t follow up. Is that now in your playbook, that thing you up? It it might show up, you know, in a theater near you. Cuz I thought to myself, that’s that’s actually a pretty damn good idea. So, we might have to implement this one. All right. So, if there’s a trick play at any point during the rest of this season, I need to sit there and think, is that what Stafford came up whole cloth and I’ll shoot you a text and say that’s the one. Give him his proper uh give him his proper credit. Okay. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that.

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and Rich Eisen discuss Matthew Stafford’s “total command” of L.A.’s offense.