By the time the Super Bowl wraps up, Matthew Stafford will be 38. It was a story of missed opportunity, considering he is coming off a season that looked every bit like an MVP run, and while the Los Angeles Rams appear eager to take another shot with him next year, the final call rests with the quarterback. He is expected to weigh his future in the coming weeks. But somewhere in the background is a familiar voice he trusts, former teammate Aaron Donald, whose perspective might make the path ahead a little clearer.

“If you ask me about the way he played this year, an MVP-type season, I think he’s got one more left,” Donald said about Stafford’s future on the Inner Circle Podcast. “I’m not telling myself anything. But if I had to assume, I think he’ll come back for another season. But that’s his decision to make. We are going to see. Only time will tell.” 

Donald isn’t wrong. But there is more to it. The Rams are here to stay for the next few seasons. That’s the way their team has been built. Los Angeles sat among the league’s best all year and finished with the NFL’s top-scoring offense. Plus, there is little reason to expect major offensive departures through trades or free agency. If Stafford comes back, he would be stepping into nearly the same setup that fueled this season’s success. That continuity may explain why he previously hinted at the possibility of playing in 2026.

The quarterback led the league in passing for 4,707 yards, 46 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions on 65% completion in the regular season. He hit one more major milestone in the middle of the year by throwing 28 straight touchdown passes without a single interception. It’s the longest such streak since play-by-play tracking began in 1978, per Elias Sports Bureau.

In fact, Stafford outnumbers the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye by 313 passing yards and 15 scores. While Maye plays the finale next week, he is still butting heads with the veteran player for the MVP honor. 

And interestingly, the history is on Stafford’s side with this one. According to ESPN Research, it marks only the eighth time in the league’s history that a quarterback breached at least 4,500 yards and 45 touchdowns in a single season. Six of the previous seven QBs who exceeded the benchmark won the MVP race.

Meanwhile, what made this season stand out more is the resurrection of his career after the 2021 Super Bowl season. Since then, his production had dipped, and he hadn’t crossed the 4,000-yard passing mark again until now.

Despite the stats pointing to another campaign, Stafford has carefully addressed his plans. Speaking after Los Angeles’ recent NFC championship loss to the Seattle Seahawks, he refrained from generalizing the past six months in ten minutes. However, he fanned the flames on exit during his appearance on Let’s Go! Podcast on Monday.

“It’ll be a lot that goes into it,” Stafford said when asked how he will decide to hang up his cleats. “It’s a physical, a mental, and emotional decision, a personal and a family decision as well… So when I’m ready to figure that out, I’ll be ready to figure that out. That moment isn’t right now. I have so much more time, I feel like, to reflect on just the people and the season that we just had. I want to appreciate that and give it the time it deserves before I start thinking personally about what’s next for my family.”

Stafford would like to take his sweet time to make up his mind. While he does that, the contract situation is also likely to play a role in his ultimate decision. 

In May 2025, the Rams locked him in for a two-year, $84 million deal that runs through the 2026 season. As per reports, Stafford may demand a raise now. Some of them even claimed that the QB is leveraging the uncertainty to renegotiate his deal. 

He could push for an increase from the $42 million he will earn in 2026. When compared to other quarterbacks, that number is still modest. These include Tua Tagovailoa ($53.1 million) and Jalen Hurts ($51 million). There is also Dak Prescott, who will earn $60 million next season. So, it’s only natural for Stafford to feel that he is underpaid.

All these factors will undoubtedly lead to Stafford’s final decision. As he reflects, Aaron Donald also has some advice for the QB. 

Aaron Donald offers retirement advice to Matthew Stafford

After weighing in on Stafford’s future, Aaron Donald was asked what wisdom bomb he would share with the Rams’ signal caller if he is seriously thinking about retirement.

According to Donald, it’s more to do with passion than other factors like performance pressure or injuries. Recalling his father’s advice to either give everything or not show up at all, Donald echoed the same sentiment in his message to Stafford.

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“If you still got that fire to want to play, want to go out there, come back, right?” he said. “But if that fire is down and you’re like, ‘I don’t know, man, I don’t think I want to come back and do camp and go through 17 games again and OTAAS and all this and that’, then don’t do it. But if the fire is still there to want to do that, if you’ve got the urge to want to go out there and compete still at the high level, hey, come back.”

Additionally, Donald recounted his own struggles near the end of his career. He admitted to feeling exhausted from being double and triple-teamed every snap, making the game less fun. Adding to the woes were the “ups and downs” the long season brought along. He revealed he didn’t even feel like training anymore.

Ultimately, it led him to walk away from the sport where he had dominated for a decade. Donald retired in March 2024 at age 32. His ten-year career included three Defensive Player of the Year awards and ten Pro Bowls.

He is quite content with his accomplishments and remains focused on his family and life after football. For Donald, retirement is all about knowing when the love for the game is still real, and he would like Stafford to have that realization before he calls the shot.