Rams' Matthew Stafford 'Not Limited at All' After Surgery on Thumb Injury

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford told reporters Monday he's “not limited at all” after having surgery on his right thumb this offseason. 

In February, Stafford told Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press that he suffered a partially torn UCL in his right thumb. 

Stafford told Albom that the 2020 season was brutal for him from an injury standpoint: 

"“I mean, this past year was bad. I had the partially torn UCL in my right thumb, I tore my UCL on my left elbow on the second to last play of the Houston game that nobody knew about, trying to stiff arm a guy. That's why I started wearing a sleeve on my left arm because I had all sorts of tape underneath it, just to hold it in place"

"“I broke my cartilage on my eighth rib in Green Bay. I also tore something (in the back of) my left knee. And then I had a subtalar, right ankle sprain.”"

The 33-year-old still managed to throw for 4,084 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completing 64.2 percent of his passes. But with head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn fired in November, Stafford—who had spent his entire career with the Lions—preferred a change of scenery to another rebuild. 

"Anytime you switch GMs and a head coach, you know that they're going to want to bring their own people in, and that's going to take time," he told Albom in February. "And I, frankly, didn't feel like I was the appropriate person to oversee that time.”

So Stafford was traded to the Rams, where he'll lead a roster far closer to contention than the one he left behind in Detroit. And barring any injuries between now and September, it sounds as though he'll go into the 2021 season with a clean bill of health. 

Which, after last year, will be a welcome change of pace for the veteran quarterback.