Matthew Stafford remains steady for Rams amid offensive line shakeup – Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES — Matthew Stafford didn’t get a warm welcome when he first stepped into Ford Field as an opposing quarterback in January. Detroit Lions fans booed their former quarterback mercilessly as he led the Rams in a failed bid to win the playoffs on the road.

When the Rams return to Detroit for their season opener on Sunday, Stafford won’t try to ignore the noise.

“I’m one of those guys who goes into the opposing team’s stadium and everyone else has their headphones on, and I don’t,” Stafford said. “I want to hear it, I want to feel it, I want to feel like it’s football. That’s part of football, especially going to a game. So that just motivates me.”

Stafford, entering his 16th season, has little left to prove. The Super Bowl winner, who ranked in the top 10 of NFL records, received his second Pro Bowl nod last season.

But he still loves the competition that comes with being an NFL quarterback. Game planning, film study, running training camp. So he spent the offseason keeping his body healthy and his mind sharp to prepare for the challenges of the upcoming season.

“It takes a lot out of me to play this position,” Stafford said. “So I just tried to go away, go away and when I came back, just make sure I was fully prepared to go.”

Every season is different, and this one threw a wrench in Stafford’s way two weeks ago when the Rams began moving free agent signing Jonah Jackson to center and moved Steve Avila back to left guard.

Jackson is a former teammate of Stafford’s, who played alongside the veteran quarterback for the Lions in his rookie season in 2020. The two have worked on their snap chemistry this season, so they had an advantage when Jackson returned to practice after a shoulder injury that sidelined him for much of August.