With the Houston Texans rolling into SoFi on September 7 for Week 1, the big question around L.A. is the same one every Rams fan is asking: Will Matthew Stafford be under center? He did speak on it, but not in the dramatic headline-grabbing way many wanted. No clear yes or no, just a status update that tells you plenty if you’ve been around NFL camp long enough.

Asked point-blank about Week 1, Stafford didn’t give the clean ‘I’m in’ we were hoping for. Instead, he shrugged it off as a “day-to-day” thing. Reporter Lindsey Thiry came in with a counterpunch. Said Stafford went 100% in practice all week and looked like the man we’ve always known.

Yeah, she reported that Stafford went wire-to-wire in a full 1-hour, 50-minute practice. Not just jogging through drills, but taking the whole workload. Even better, she said he and McVay were in good spirits, chatting and laughing the whole way. For late August, that’s not just window dressing. That’s a legit green flag that Stafford’s body can handle the grind. If you’re scratching your head trying to square the positive practice reports with Stafford’s cautious “day-to-day” line, here’s the deal: vets with back (or really any core) stuff rarely get nailed down two weeks out.

What matters more is what the Rams are actually doing. Stafford has been in full practice all week, taking first-team reps, no restrictions, and they’re planning to sit him in the preseason finale strictly as a precaution. No need to stress it out!

At the end of the day, the real Week 1 indicator isn’t going to show up on an injury report; it’s whether Stafford can still rip it with velocity and ball placement against live coverage. According to McVay, he checked that box: Stafford “activated all parts of the field” and was “playing at a really high level.” Sure, that’s classic coach-speak, of course. But when you pair it with the full workload and the relaxed vibe at practice, the Rams are gearing up like QB1 will be ready to roll.

Oh, and if you want a baseline for what “ready” really means, just look back at last year. At 37 years old, Stafford still put up 3,762 yards, 20 touchdowns, 8 picks, and a 64.7 QBR over 16 games. Not MVP numbers, but definitely top-half of the league, and also, good enough to keep the Rams in the fight all season. And if you were wondering about his back injury (yet another), he just opened up about it.

Matthew Stafford opens up on the back injury

So what actually went down? Stafford said there wasn’t some dramatic “pop” moment. It just kind of crept up on him during the offseason work. That’s why he and the team are treating it like a moving target instead of a one-time setback. He also steered clear of the nitty-gritty details, which is pretty standard when you’re talking about anything soft-tissue or spine-adjacent in August.

Stafford made it clear he hasn’t exactly been sitting around. He said he’s done “everything under the sun” to get back, shouting out the Rams’ medical and training staff for all the work. Even mentioning “a ton of research” that’s gone into keeping him right. And these little details matter when you take a look at his history with back injuries.

This isn’t the first time Stafford’s back has been in the spotlight. Back in 2018, he finished the season with non-displaced fractures in his upper spine (he played through it, by the way). Fast forward to 2022, and things got scarier: a spinal cord contusion that left him with numbness in his legs after a hit. He only made nine starts before landing on IR. So another back injury that ‘crept up on him‘? Scary stuff.

And that raises one concern. Stafford might be full go-ahead of week 1. But who’s to say this is the last time a back injury hits him? Taking the history into account, this surely isn’t the last. And the Rams need a reliable Matthew Stafford this year to keep the season alive. It’s a healthy Matthew Stafford or bust.

But let’s focus on the now. He’s here and he’s putting on a show. “I’ve seen a guy that’s gotten better and better. He looks like the stud that we know. I think the first day was kind of getting comfortable, just getting his feet wet a little bit. And then I think each of the last couple days, he’s played really fast,” Sean McVay said about him. And right now, this is all that matters.