Matthew Stafford acknowledged he’s not 25 anymore but definitely feels good, which leads Mike Florio and Chris Simms to outline how much longer the QB will be with the Rams and how far the team can go.

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MIKE FLORIO: We're moving on to Matthew Stafford. Here he is, speaking of guys who are injured. Here's a guy that's usually injured who apparently is feeling pretty good. Specifically, talking about whether or not he was always returning, despite the chatter that maybe he would retire.

MATTHEW STAFFORD: I mean, I felt really confident I was coming back. I feel like more people were less confident that than I was. But no, I was ready to go, ready to play as soon as I was cleared. And I feel great. I feel healthy. And, you know, I'm not 25. But I definitely feel good.

I've been throwing with the guys a decent amount leading up to this. So I feel good. Obviously, going to do everything I can to try to be as healthy as I can at all times. You know, not probably a human jugs machine like I used to be. But can still get it out there and throw it around a bunch.

I'm not going to talk too much about what used to be, or how I used to feel, or anything like that. All I know is that I put a lot of work and time into trying to feel as good as I can for right now. I do feel about as good as I can for right now. And that's exciting for me.

MIKE FLORIO: Control room thinks there's been some dental work for Matthew Stafford.

CHRIS SIMMS: No doubt about it.

MIKE FLORIO: That's fine. Joe burrow did it a couple of years ago. And it's entirely possible maybe he broke a tooth or two drinking the 1942 straight out of the bottle.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, it happens, right.

MIKE FLORIO: There is a hazard. There's a hazard to drinking the tequila straight out of the bottle, especially if you're going to drink too much of it and if you're going to perfect the craft of walking away quickly when someone falls off of a stage. Like, you may hit yourself in the mouth with the bottle as you pivot--

CHRIS SIMMS: You're funny.

MIKE FLORIO: --and walk away.

CHRIS SIMMS: You're funny. You are. Yeah, listen, he's been beat up. We know that. You know, I mean, again, he's kind of funny with what he said there, especially at the end. Like, I feel good for right now. That's exciting. Like he's expecting something to come down the line here. But we've talked about this a lot. He's about as beat up of a middle 30s quarterback as you're going to find.

I mean, the fact that we're even-- again, it tells you how beat up he is, the fact that he's like, oh, I'm not a jugs machine anymore, you got to worry about that. Like, he's worried about throws. You know, Tom Brady ain't worried about throws, right? Even right now, he could go out and do-- oh, I'm going to throw 300 balls today. You know? If you throw it the right way and you're not beat up, you shouldn't be having a sore arm. But we'll see.

Again, this is a big thing for Matthew Stafford. He did great last year. He was amazing. They just stunk around him. But if you go back and watch the way he played, it actually was quite impressive. He took a beating while doing it.

But damn, yeah, I mean, put me in the category and you're probably in this too, I don't know what to expect from the Rams this year. It's a team that's totally flipping everything around, and a rebuilt, retooled mode. And they got a quarterback that we certainly got some questions about as far as his health status and being able to play a whole year.

MIKE FLORIO: He is an old 35. We've talked about that. And he can do whatever he needs to do to get to 100%. And hey, big difference over last year if he is 100% because he was never 100% last year.

CHRIS SIMMS: No.

MIKE FLORIO: Never. He had the elbow injury that-- the elbow issue-- injury, issue-- the elbow issue or injury that kept him from throwing at all in the off-season. And then it was an issue in training camp-- got it right that time-- until all of a sudden, it wasn't. Wasn't that so weird?

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: Like, it was this panic level thing for the Rams. And then all of a sudden, it just wasn't a problem. But once it's time to play games, that's when he gets hit, that's when he's going to get banged up. And with each passing year, it's going to be more likely to happen.

And look, there was enough smoke to think that there was at least a flicker of flame, that they were waiting for someone to make them an offer, to trade Matthew Stafford's contract because they had to guarantee another $57 million to this guy. I'm telling you, they were drunk off their asses on 1942 after they won that Super Bowl because they gave out a bunch of contracts they shouldn't have.

It's amazing to me that this team won a Super Bowl. The way they've mismanaged the cap, the way that they have given out money, from Jared Goff to Matthew Stafford to-- who else did they pay a bunch of money to?

CHRIS SIMMS: Todd Gurley.

MIKE FLORIO: They traded Jalen Ramsey so they don't have to. They gave all that money to Todd Gurley. They gave the money to Allen Robinson. They gave the contract to Aaron Donald. They still have him. But I mean, this Stafford deal, they had to give up an extra first round pick to unload Jared Goff's contract.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: And God only knows what the trade terms would have been if they would have been able to find a partner for Matthew Stafford, somebody who would have taken on that contract. And the hope was that the Jets would be the team that swooped in and made them an offer for Matthew Stafford. But I don't know how much longer he's going to be with the Rams. Who knows?

I feel like he's year-to-year. I feel like Sean McVay is year-to-year, even though he tries to say he isn't. I feel like they both are. And if this year goes badly enough, one or both could be gone by 2024.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, I mean, you're right. Like, anything can happen there, for sure. It's definitely-- it seems like a flip of the coin a little bit with the Rams. And agreed with you, they won the Super Bowl and they were a little frivolous. They were frivolous before that, we know. But the Super Bowl just justified them being, hey, here you go, here you go. And they traded for Matthew Stafford and gave away the first round picks. So because of that, they wanted to justify all that as well. You know?

But yeah, they've thrown money around. And I also think that's the reason-- and I know we've hit on this-- that McVay, who I think was very seriously thinking about walking away, didn't walk away because he was like, damn, a lot of these guys signed back here because I told them I was going to be here and made promises, and that's why they're here.

I think there was a personal element that he started to realize, well, wait, wait, I might have affected a lot of people's lives here and now just walk away. So yeah, very interesting situation. I mean, I think when you couple the quarterback, the coach, Aaron Donald at the end of his career, and where he's at, and all of that, yeah, I mean, the Rams, it feels like they're not a contending team for playoff football and a team that I'm like, how competitive or how good can they actually be?

MIKE FLORIO: I'll look at it this way.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: And I'm willing to put this prediction out there. I think it's very likely Aaron Donald's last year with the Rams.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right, you've said that, yeah.

MIKE FLORIO: Quite possibly Matthew Stafford's last year with the Rams. And good chance it's Sean McVay's last year with the LA Rams. And we'll just see how it plays out. And you said anything can happen. I don't think winning a Super Bowl is going to happen.

CHRIS SIMMS: No, that's what I'm saying. I don't even think--

MIKE FLORIO: That would be a hell of a story.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right, playoffs, I mean, they don't look like-- you know, just evaluate again. It's paper, I know that. But playoffs doesn't seem like a real thing in that division with the way their roster looks, some of the age of their players, the draft, lack of picks there. They're not going to able to save themselves because of that. So that's not going to change my thought a whole lot there. Yeah, it's definitely a team that's in flux right now.

MIKE FLORIO: And it really is amazing-- before we take a break-- to see how the ultra loyal serenity now fans will plug their ears and ignore what's staring them in the face. Because Sean McVay clearly went through a process where he was thinking about leaving. But when he decided to stay, the ultra loyal Rams fans, if there are any, and I think there are, they said, oh, it was all fake. It was all made up. He was never thinking about leaving. Baloney.

CHRIS SIMMS: That's what everybody says.

MIKE FLORIO: Baloney. He was leaving.

CHRIS SIMMS: Right.

MIKE FLORIO: He was leaving until-- until he got that blowback that you referred to. He was rattled. He was shaken by the blowback. This has been fair-haired boy, golden child his whole life. And for the first time, he was getting criticized, he was getting called out, he was hearing it publicly, he was hearing it privately. He was packing up and getting out of dodge before the ceiling caved in on the operation. And everybody who was left behind was like, what the hell are you doing? And once that started to happen, he got shamed into staying. He was out. And he got shamed into staying.

Another reason he stayed, there wasn't a $20 million offer from Amazon on the table like there had been a year before. There really wasn't a place he was going to go and get good money to be a broadcaster. The seats were taken. But still, once that blowback happened, that's when the toothpaste went back in the tube.

And I'm not ready to accept, given the fact that most teams, but specifically the Rams, have a history of not telling the truth about things, I'm not ready to accept his version of the truth that he's staying for good. I think that it could be his last year as well with the Rams. And if we if we don't acknowledge that, we're just fooling ourselves.

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