Bill Belichick has always been known for his philosophies, and one of his more talked-about takes was on Thanksgiving. The former New England Patriots coach believed that’s when the season really starts to ramp up. That’s exactly when teams begin positioning themselves for the postseason. New England did it countless times.

“He (Belichick) explained to us that right around Thanksgiving, the week changes, and you’ve gotta be ready for that. You’ve gotta be up to the challenge. … And obviously you get to the postseason — it gets ramped up once more,” the former Patriots guard Rich Ohrnberger once said. But if you ask Matthew Stafford about it, you might get a very different perspective.

The Los Angeles Rams‘ QB recently dropped by the Let’s Go podcast, where he talked about the Rams’ win, Puka Nacua as the NFL’s best receiver, and, of course, his take on how his performance post-Thanksgiving with the Detroit Lions was not that meaningful. “I think they’re all big,” Stafford said when asked if there really is a thing like big games after Thanksgiving.

“I mean, it doesn’t start till Thanksgiving, but the stuff that happens before that matters. There’s no question about that. I’ve been on, I’ve been on, you know, played some late-season games when I was in Detroit after Thanksgiving that didn’t matter a whole lot. So, we got to make sure you take care of business before Thanksgiving to make those games matter.”

After being selected by the Lions first overall in 2009, Stafford spent over a decade in Detroit before Dan Campbell and his crew decided to part ways with him. Across 12 seasons, he tallied over 45K yards with a completion rate of 61.1% while also racking up 282 touchdowns.

Stafford has said that his post-Thanksgiving games with the Lions didn’t really stand out much. But when you look at his Thanksgiving Day stretch, he actually performed really well. From 2013 to 2015, he threw for over 330 yards in three straight Thanksgiving games, helping the Lions to a 2-1 record in those matchups (overall record is 4-6).

But there were also some instances where the Lions put up a poor outing late in the season. Take the 2019 season, for instance. The Lions indeed had a good start to the season. But the team lost 12 of their last 13 games, with eight of those losses decided by a touchdown or less. This is exactly why Stafford believes it’s the pre-Thanksgiving games that actually matter.

Matthew Stafford looks like an MVP contender in 2025

By now, it won’t be wrong to say that the Lions’ trading Matthew Stafford to the Rams was the best thing that happened to the 37-year-old quarterback. He’s led the Rams to three postseasons in his first four years. He’s already won the Super Bowl. And fast forward to now, he’s eyeing his first MVP in the league. Stafford will turn 38 by the time Super Bowl 60 rolls around.

But just four weeks into the season, he’s already looking like an MVP contender. And the reasons for that are many, if we’re being real. Take his first four weeks, for example. The quarterback won three of those games, threw for 1,114 yards and eight touchdowns, and posted a completion rate of 67.6%.

Zooming out a bit, he’s already making his mark among the Rams’ all-time greats. Heading into Week 4 against the Indianapolis Colts, Stafford had 382 career touchdowns, including 100 with the Rams. He’s now thrown more passing touchdowns than Kurt Warner in franchise history. With 103 touchdowns for LA, he sits sixth on the team’s all-time list. Looking ahead, Stafford is expected to surpass Jared Goff (107) and Norm Van Brocklin (118) by the end of the season.

On top of that, he’s climbing the NFL’s all-time passing touchdown ranks. In Week 3, he passed Matt Ryan (381) to claim ninth place. And if he stays fit and can add 34 more touchdowns, he’s on track to pass Ben Roethlisberger as well. That said, we’ll have to see if Stafford can put together a strong post-Thanksgiving run this year and, more importantly, if he can lead the Rams all the way to the Super Bowl.