Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford Faces Unwanted NFL Milestone Against The Las Vegas Raiders

Matthew Stafford is closing in on the NFL’s most losses by a quarterback© Getty via AFP

Matthew Stafford can tie one of the least welcome records in NFL history on Sunday. The Los Angeles Rams quarterback has lost 122 career games as a starter, one fewer than Vinny Testaverde's league-high 123, set over 21 seasons, and another defeat against the Las Vegas Raiders would pull him level. A second loss after that would leave the mark to him alone. The Rams are 2-4 after entering the season as Super Bowl favorites, and Stafford, the 38-year-old reigning MVP, has thrown 11 touchdowns and six interceptions through six games.

Matthew Stafford can tie Testaverde's NFL record for quarterback losses against the Raiders

Stafford sits at 122-122-1 as a starter, and the split tells the story of two very different careers. He went 74-90-1 with the Detroit Lions between 2009 and 2020, then 48-32 once the Rams traded for him in 2021. Testaverde finished 90-123-1 over 21 seasons. Eli Manning is next with 117 losses, then Drew Brees with 114 and Brett Favre with 113, so Stafford has already passed some famous names.

The timing is awkward. Los Angeles has dropped four of its first six, which few expected from a team plenty of people picked to win it all, and Stafford has looked a long way from last year's MVP form. If the Raiders win, he ties Testaverde. The next loss after that makes the record his alone.

Why a record for losses can still support a Hall of Fame case

Quarterbacks who play badly rarely last long enough to lose this often. Detroit took Stafford first overall in 2009 and kept starting him through a dozen seasons, even though the Lions never won a playoff game with him. He then moved to Los Angeles, won Super Bowl LVI in his first year there and took MVP honors in 2025.

That résumé keeps the Canton conversation alive. Brees and Favre, who share the top five of the losses list with him, are both in the Hall. Stafford is one of only 15 quarterbacks with a Super Bowl title and an MVP award, and ten of the previous 14 are already enshrined. Brady, Rodgers and Mahomes are expected to join them. Only Joe Theismann, whose career ended with a gruesome leg injury in 1985, is left out.

Whether anyone catches Stafford is doubtful. Aaron Rodgers has 95 losses and plans to retire after this season, and Joe Flacco, at 94, is not a starter. Baker Mayfield is the only real candidate. He is 31 and 58-65, and seven more seasons at 8-9 would put the Buccaneers quarterback at 128.