Matthew Stafford's Rings

One of the more veteran quarterbacks in the league with vast experience at the quarterback position is none other than Matthew Stafford. Throughout his long career, Stafford has seen immense success from his early years as far as individual statistics are concerned. Mel Kiper Jr., a senior NFL Draft analyst, had predicted that Stafford would be the number one pick in the NFL as far back as his high school days.

Although he got off to a slow start in his freshman year of college, he began picking up pace in his sophomore and junior years, cutting down on his interceptions and increasing the number of touchdowns. By the time Stafford was completing his junior year, there was growing speculation that he could potentially become the top pick in the 2009 NFL draft if he chose to forgo his senior year. Doing exactly as many suspected, Stafford entered the 2009 draft and was selected as the number one overall pick by the Detroit Lions.

How many Super Bowls has Matthew Stafford won?

A player of Stafford’s caliber who has set innumerous records not only for the franchises he has played for but also in the league, one thing was always missing from his resume. A Super Bowl win had been eluding Stafford for more than a decade and the worst part was that he was never close to even reaching it when he was playing for the Lions.

Then, before the start of the 2021 season, Stafford requested a trade and Detroit was also looking to shake up the coaching staff and their players to revamp the team. Agreeing to a trade with the Los Angeles Rams was the best thing Stafford could have done in his career, as it put him with a team ready to contend for the Lombardi Trophy. And, just like that, Stafford and the Rams, in their first year together, delivered the Super Bowl to Los Angeles, giving Stafford his first and only ring to date.

In Super Bowl LVI, the fourth seeded Rams from the NFC defeated the fourth seeded Cincinnati Bengals from the AFC. Although the game was a tight and closely fought battle, the Rams held on to win the game 23-20. Putting up 283 passing yards and three touchdowns would have easily won Stafford the MVP award also, but he had two costly interceptions and his overall rating of 89.9 resulted in Cooper Kupp being awarded the game MVP.

Even though 2022 was a shocking turn around for the Rams as the defending champions finished 5-12 and third in their division, Stafford managed to turn the ship around in 2023 by taking the Rams into the postseason with 14 rookies on the roster. The Rams are seen as one of the contenders in the NFC in 2024.

Why Mattew Stafford couldn’t win a Super Bowl with the Lions?

If you were to take a close look at what Stafford accomplished for the Lions, you would probably be a tad surprised at the long list of achievements. He quite possibly holds all records for this franchise as far as quarterback stats are considered. Having said that, the main hurdle always came in winning games, reaching the postseason and the distant Super Bowl.

While Stafford was with the Lions for twelve prolonged years, the team had only four winning seasons and made the playoffs just three times. So, when it comes to Stafford not being able to win with his former franchise, the blame has to go to everyone concerned. Stafford himself should be blamed to a certain degree due to some bad decisions on his part. He was unable to carry the team in situations where they needed him to make the big plays at important times.

However, a much larger portion of the blame should be upon the management, who just didn’t provide Stafford with players that could get the job done and help him out on the field. He didn’t have the best run support for the most part, and the aspects of the team were also not up to the standards. There were opportunities for the Lions management to acquire better players but that was an area where they fell short.

Consequently, it was the move to Los Angeles that bore fruit for Stafford and he was able to show the entire world that he was always a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback but just needed the right people around him.