Matthew Stafford

Stafford enters the year as the Rams' entrenched starter working behind a good offensive line with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams at his disposal, and heading into Week 1 the shows had him pegged as a value QB1 given his 2025 MVP-caliber efficiency. That praise ran into a brutal Thursday night reality check against the 49ers — 155 yards, an interception, a blown goal-line sneak, an overturned rushing score, and a fourth-quarter benching — reopening the age-38 durability question that had been lingering all preseason.

Through late August and early September, shows like The Audible, Rotoworld, and FantasyPros were pounding the table that Stafford was underrated at QB13-16, with Waldman even floating top-3 upside based on arm talent and the Rams' red-zone trust. Fantasy Feast was the lone dissenting voice pre-Week 1, flagging his age as the reason to hesitate on a Rams over-bet. Then the TNF loss to San Francisco flipped the tone: Fantasy Football Today, Ringer, and Fantasy Footballers all piled on the ugly box score, though Berry's crew and Harris's pod pushed back that one rough, travel-affected game — echoing a similarly bad Week 1 last year before an MVP campaign — isn't proof of decline.

The line: Don't bench or sell after one bad Thursday night; the preseason case for a value-priced QB1 still holds unless the rust repeats. · updated Sep 13