{"id":268420,"date":"2025-08-07T07:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/268420\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T07:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:21:13","slug":"the-rams-expect-matthew-stafford-to-play-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/268420\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rams expect Matthew Stafford to play Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite any ailments that Matthew Stafford is going through, there is an expectation among the Los Angeles Rams that Stafford will suit up Week 1 against the Houston Texans.<\/p>\n<p>Can saying Stafford will play Week 1 be a smoke screen?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sean McVay and his crew may be putting it out that Stafford is expected to play Week 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.turfshowtimes.com\/los-angeles-rams-injuries\/101448\/this-is-a-big-deal-dr-breaks-down-stafford-back-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">when they know his injury is more concerning than they are letting on<\/a>. What good does that do the team? A healthy Stafford (or perception of) increases the chances (or perception of) towards the Rams winning a Super Bowl, which in turn increases interest in the Rams market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Teams, specifically the Texans also will have to prepare differently if Stafford is playing as opposed to Jimmy Garoppolo making this potential smokescreen not just business driven, but strategic on a football level as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There\u2019s plenty of reasons for the Rams to push the narrative that Stafford is the plan, however has McVay ever not wanted his best players to play when it mattered?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019s likely McVay does expect (and really hopes) Stafford plays Week 1, the organization expects (and really hopes) Stafford suits up, and as long as Stafford does play, and plays well, then this storyline will be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wKatZlsH3FE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">big nothing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If Stafford misses time, and or if the Rams falter as the veteran gunslinger looks rusty, then there will be more questions about the Rams and Stafford until they right their ship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">File this one away under TBD in the Football Zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite any ailments that Matthew Stafford is going through, there is an expectation among the Los Angeles Rams&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,1014,58,28489,3378,9406,30994,2444,2611,6,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-268420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-los-angeles","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-los-angeles-rams-preseason","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams-rumors","13":"tag-los-angeles-rams-schedule","14":"tag-los-angeles-rams-training-camp","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesrams","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-rams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114986279683364356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}