Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford still ranked among NFL's elite duos entering 2025
The Los Angeles Rams have been among the NFC's best teams in each of the last two seasons, and it's no surprise considering they have one of the best head coach-quarterback partnerships the league has seen since 2021.
Head coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford have been ranked the No. 3 coach-quarterback duo in the NFL entering the 2025 season, according to Sports Illustrated's Matt Verderame. It's the same spot they held in last year's rankings, but this time, the context feels different. The Rams are no longer a team trying to reclaim past glory—they're actively building on it.
The Rams are back to being Super Bowl favorites after a few seasons as fringe contenders. Matthew Stafford is 37 years old but still one of the NFL's top signal-callers despite having only thrown for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns across 16 starts in 2024. McVay is one of the best tacticians in the league, having already won a Super Bowl in the 2021 season.
Advertisement
Stafford, now 37, continues to defy the typical quarterback aging curve. While his 2024 stats (3,762 passing yards, 20 touchdowns) won't jump off the page, his command of McVay's system, ability to elevate young talent, and clutch performances have kept the Rams firmly in the title mix.
McVay, meanwhile, remains one of the most innovative minds in football, a Super Bowl-winning tactician whose offensive schemes continue to evolve with the game. His partnership with Stafford has been foundational to L.A.'s success, especially as the team retooled its roster after parting ways with several veterans in recent years.
Only two duos outranked them: John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens, who will face off against the Rams in Week 6, and Andy Reid with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. That's elite company, and fitting for a duo that already has a championship together and might not be done chasing another.
Advertisement
The Rams may not be the flashiest pick to win it all in 2025, but with McVay and Stafford steering the ship, they're as dangerous as anyone.
Follow Rams Wire on X and Facebook for more coverage!
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams' Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford ranked among NFL's best duos
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
34 minutes ago
- New York Post
The brutal reality for Shedeur Sanders as Browns' QB competition begins
Shedeur Sanders is carving up players who will be on practice squads or out of the NFL come September. And that may be an apt description for his standing. Mary Kay Cabot noted after Sanders' stats in a recent organized team activities (OTA) went viral that the polarizing prospect is the team's fourth-string quarterback. Advertisement 3 Shedeur Sanders during a recent OTA. AP 'Shedeur Sanders … did not take one rep in 11-on-11s,' Cabot said earlier this week on the 'Orange and Brown Talk' podcast. 'He has to come in here as the fourth-string quarterback and work his way up that depth chart. So, he did not take a team rep. He did not have (rookie defensive tackle) Mason Graham in his face yesterday at all.' Advertisement Discussion of Sanders' positioning in the Browns' quarterback battle comes after the four contenders for the starting job in Sanders, Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel participated in OTAs this week. Deshaun Watson is expected to miss the season after undergoing Achilles tendon surgeries. Cabot and Dan Labee offered key context on the podcast to the eye-popping practice stats from ESPN Cleveland that showed Sanders completed 7-of-9 passes with three touchdowns – better numbers than Pickett, Flacco and Gabriel had that same day. Except that all of Sanders' production came during 7-on-7 periods, presumably against the back end of the defensive roster. Advertisement Why is that distinction important? Spring practices are structured to favor offensive success because defensive linemen run by the quarterbacks and raise their hands for what would be a sack. Then, take it one step further and 7-on-7s — with no pass rush and endless quarterback comfort — are even more slanted toward completions. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski indicated the snaps order isn't rigid. Advertisement 3 Sanders is running fourth in the race, per the report. AP 'We're mixing it up every single day,' Stefanski said. 'So that's why I tell you not to read much into it, even though you guys don't listen to me. But we're just trying to get guys exposure to different concepts, those types of things. So, it varies by walkthrough. It can vary by drill. It's not something that we're really — we're not leaning into or worried about the order at this moment.' As a point of snap comparison, the Giants gave Russell Wilson most of the first-team 11-on-11 reps during last week's OTA but also mixed in rookie Jaxson Dart for three plays with the starters. Jameis Winston ran the second-team offense, Dart was first up with the third-team offense and fourth-stringer Tommy DeVito – the former viral sensation – only took four snaps (none consecutively) with the third-team offense. Sanders is not to blame for the NFL world running with his practice stats. He can only do the most with the reps he is given. 3 The four potential starters in Cleveland. Advertisement But – because he is the celebrity son of a Hall of Famer who endured an unprecedented fall from much-hyped first-round prospect to fifth-round pick – his development is going to be a major story this season. Before he can dream of getting on the field in a real game, Sanders has to start to earn some of the 11-on-11 reps that Pickett, Flacco and fellow rookie and third-round pick Gabriel are taking in practice. His 7-on-7 numbers are a good first small step when framed correctly.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jay Toia fits Cowboys vision for violent DT rotation
Jay Toia fits Cowboys vision for violent DT rotation originally appeared on Athlon Sports. If his arms were two inches longer, he's a Day 2 pick. If the league valued the 1-tech the way it did before the pass-happy era, he's not on the board in the seventh. Advertisement But things happen. And the Dallas Cowboys may have found something worth exploring here. Jay Toia is already taking some turns running with the 1's in OTA's, as noted as we watched practice inside The Star on Thursday. Does that mean Toia is already more pro-ready than Mazi Smith? Or is this just more "Schotty-psychology" at work? A subtle way to light a fire under Mazi and get him "playing mad''? We don't know all of the answers here yet. But here's what we know for certain, Toia was PFF's highest graded run stopper in the class. Toia is incredibly difficult to move. And Toia comes from an entire family of NFL war-daddies. Advertisement Let's break this down. Cowboys D-line coach Aaron Whitecotton has been consistent since the day he got here: he prioritizes violence, penetration, rotation, and relentless energy. He wants fresh legs, interchangeable pieces, and an interior that attacks rather than absorbs. That's the lens you need when looking at Jay Toia. The 6-3, 335-pound rookie was a seventh-rounder in April, but don't let that shape your ceiling for him. The only reason he slid that far? Positional value. Nose tackles and true 1-techs aren't getting top dollar or draft love in a league obsessed with splashy pass-rushers. But maybe that's changing — fast (stay tuned on that front). Advertisement Now look at Dallas. The front office wasn't aggressive at defensive tackle in free agency, and they waited until Round 7 to address it in the draft. That might say more about their belief in Mazi than fans want to admit. Or maybe it's new coach Brian Schottenheimer doing what he's done all offseason — turning every roster move into a spark for competition. You need at least four defensive tackles to survive an NFL season. Some teams carry five. In years past, Dallas relied on aging journeymen like Jonathan Hankins and Linval Joseph to plug that hole. But now? Toia, Mazi, and second year man Justin Rogers give them potentially three 330+ pound bodies to throw into the fire. The problem is, most rookie DTs don't contribute early and Justin Rogers might as well be considered a rookie, too. It's the second-hardest transition in football behind quarterback. But Toia might be an exception because of the aforementioned bloodline of NFL trench warriors. You can feel it in how he plays. He walks, talks, and breathes interior football. But if that's not the case, which even despite early OTA reports shouldn't come as a surprise, then who can the Cowboys call on as the "mentor" in the room to help continue to cultivate the growth of the room. Advertisement You wouldn't be wrong to default to either Osa Odighizuwa or Solomon Thomas as the answer to that question. Those two guys are well-thought of in the Cowboys organization and also league-wide, but they're both more of your penetrating-pass-rush type 3-techs and much less so true run stoppers. So maybe this is where we glance back at something we discussed just a couple short weeks ago. Maybe the time is coming when the league starts valuing a guy like this. But for now? If Jay Toia can play? He'll be plenty valuable to a Dallas team that needs major improvement in plugging the run. Related: Cowboys Need 1 More Major Roster Move And Stats Reveal Why Related: Cowboys Lack Of Urgency Creates Huge Pressure on Mazi Smith This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
New York Giants Rookie Quarterback Jaxson Dart Showing Makeup Behind Russell Wilson
The New York Giants drafted quarterback Jaxson Dart with little intention of playing him in Year 1. Dart may see time when the games don't matter, or after the Week 14 bye week gives him ample time to prepare. But the Giants didn't just sign a starter for him to compete with; they insulated the room with both Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to ensure he only plays on their terms. Wilson, signed to a $10.5 million deal in March, is set to start in Week 1, and at the very least through the first portion of the season that sees New York play its division rivals, along with the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers. Advertisement Not every prospect is comfortable with that kind of environment. Dart has been quick to confirm that he's on board with the team's plans, and it is part of why he checked so many boxes for the front office during the pre-draft process. The Giants' rookie is showing the makeup that made him a first-round pick, most recently in an interview with Sports Illustrated. "Our sole focus as a quarterback room is to win games," said Dart. "That's what we come to work every single day to do. We want to win. So, we all have the same focus. We have the same intent of what we're doing and how we're trying to handle it, and make the team better. So obviously, you're competing. But you know, those guys, they've been in my shoes. They were rookies once, too. So they understand the growing pains." Wilson and Winston have over two decades of experience between them. Wilson won a Super Bowl and lost another while rising from third-round pick to a full-fledged superstar. Winston, the first-overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, knows all about the expectations Dart is facing. Advertisement Together, they'll take on New York and hope to be the mentors Dart needs to successfully leap from SEC star to NFL stalwart. At rookie camp, Dart emphasized how he is willing to sit behind those veterans as he gets acclimated to the next level. 'Golly, yeah, they've been great,' he said at rookie camp. 'They were some of the first people to text me when I got drafted. And I thought that was just super cool. Those are guys that I've looked up to for such a long time. I've said this before, I remember I was wearing Russell's jersey with the Seahawks when he won a Super Bowl. So, like I said, these guys have been people who I've really looked up to. And I hold them in the highest regard. 'So, I think for me, being in this situation, being able to be a sponge and soak in all the information that I can, will help elevate me. And then at the same time, I just want to compete and make everybody else better in the room as well.' Related: Giants Schedule Reveals Potential Dart Debuts Related: Jaxson Dart Reveals Surprising Take on Giants Teammate
