The noise came from deep within Kevin Dotson’s chest.
The Rams right guard’s baritone belly-laugh bellowed out of him when asked if he had seen his quarterback, 17-year veteran Matthew Stafford, shimmy his shoulders with arms spread wide, palms up to the sky, after his fourth touchdown pass of the day, a no-looker to Colby Parkinson in the Rams’ 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“That’s the type of thing that gives us energy, man,” Dotson said once the laugh had subsided, “to see our quarterback like that.”
The moment was the talk of the locker room after the win. Parkinson was eager to see a replay. Receiver Puka Nacua said it was the perfect summation of how Stafford is feeling in the midst of the best stretches of his career.
“I loved it,” head coach Sean McVay said. “It was swaggy, it was authentic, it was unscripted.”
Running back Kyren Williams promised to do an homage to Stafford’s move the next time he reaches the end zone, and even did an impromptu imitation in the visitor’s locker room at Levi’s Field.
“I grew up watching Matthew Stafford,” Williams said. “It’s really cool just being on the field, seeing and witnessing greatness and being his teammate.”
“Greatness.” It’s a word that gets thrown about sometimes too easily. Like how everyone these days is “the GOAT” — the greatest of all time. But if everyone is the greatest, how can anybody actually deserve the title?
Then again, how else do you describe what Stafford has done these last six weeks?
Twenty touchdowns to zero interceptions, a 67.4% completion rate, 0.314 estimated points added per play, an NFL-high 57.3% success rate in that span, a 5-1 record as a team.
He’s doing it with the style that has defined much of his career, with arm-angle and no-look flourishes. And he’s doing it with the type of efficiency that has at times eluded him; these six games without an interception mark the longest stretch of his career.
And he’s done it all while trying to get on the same page with Davante Adams on the fly after missing much of training camp, while missing Nacua for parts of three games, while seamlessly integrating a heavy dose of 13-personnel into this offense.
“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year, to be honest,” said Adams, the only player on this offense who has been a part of an MVP campaign, with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. “Against Tennessee and how he bounced back after that, that’s how an MVP plays.”
This was all the way back in Week 2, Adams’ second game playing with Stafford. The quarterback had thrown a misguided pass at the end of the second quarter that was intercepted. The turnover led to a field goal that gave the Titans a three-point lead at halftime.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, Adams noted how coolly Stafford had handled the mistake. Stafford quipped that Adams must not have seen him slam his helmet in self-disgust.
But that’s not what Adams was referring to; he was pointing at how Stafford shook off the mistake and stayed calm in the huddle, completing 14 of 17 passes in the second half for 191 yards, two touchdowns and no picks to lead the comeback.
“To rally a team, to continue to lead at a high level when things don’t go your way,” Adams said, “I think that’s what really shows what an MVP is about.”
For all the counting stats that have defined Stafford’s career — one of 10 quarterbacks to throw for 60,000 yards, the 400-touchdown mark he reached Sunday against the Niners — he’s never had much in the way of end-of-season accolades. Two Pro Bowl appearances and one Comeback Player of the Year, but no All-Pros and never a top-five finish in MVP voting.
But after Sunday’s four-touchdown performance — his third in a row — Stafford is the favorite at BetMGM to win MVP at +275 odds.
Not that he’s paying much attention.
“It doesn’t affect me at all,” Stafford said. “I’m trying to continue to find ways to be a good football player for this team and try to get us in the end zone as much as I can. With that comes whatever, I don’t know. I think about those words. I see people say stuff like that, and all I can think about is, ‘I’m just lucky to have unbelievable teammates.’ I really am.”
And the Rams are just as appreciative of the energy he is providing them in his 17th season and fifth in Los Angeles, one shimmy at a time.
“It’s contagious, and we feed off of that as a team in general,” tight end Davis Allen said. “You always want to play good for Stafford because you know he’s laying it on the line for you.”