Matthew Stafford: Drew Brees 'lit a fire under me' before MVP season

We’ve seen a changing of the guard at quarterback in recent NFL seasons, with all-time greats like Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning stepping away from the game one after the next. Even if they aren’t bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame (at least not right away), guys like Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, and Phillip Rivers also took their leave. Now the old guard is made up of a washed-up Aaron Rodgers and a Matthew Stafford who, for now, is winning his duel with Father Time.

And Stafford credits a little bit of his success to a conversation with Brees, which he opened up about on the Green Light with Chris Long YouTube show. They spoke before his 2025 season, when Stafford was 37 and mulling his future. Stafford, the first overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, has spent a long time in the NFL and knows each year might be his last. But that talk with Brees opened his eyes.

“He was like ‘You might have your best five years of your career coming up,'” Stafford recalled. ‘And I was like, I never thought about it that way. Drew saying that kind of lit a fire under me. It gives you a little bit of a belief an old guy can spin it a little bit.”

Brees was right — Stafford went on to win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award after taking the Rams to a 12-5 finish, leading the league in both passing yards (4,707) and touchdown passes (46, a career-high). He was named a first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler, and posted the highest passer rating of his career (109.2).

That observation came from experience. Brees dealt with some injuries over his last five years, averaging 14 games per season, but he averaged 3,891 yards and 29 touchdowns each year, too. He also posted three of his five best single-season passer ratings during that stretch, in 2019 (116.3), 2018 (115.7), and 2020 (106.4). Crucially, those four seasons were the only four consecutive years Brees and the Saints made the playoffs in his 15-year run with New Orleans. If Stafford’s final five years reach as many heights as Brees did, that’s a career to be proud of.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Matthew Stafford: Drew Brees ‘lit a fire under me’ before MVP season