INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- On Sunday against the Houston Texans, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford joined an exclusive group when he completed a 6-yard pass to wide receiver Puka Nacua midway through the fourth quarter.
Those six passing yards pushed Stafford over the 60,000-yard mark, a milestone hit by only nine other quarterbacks in NFL history: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Dan Marino and Aaron Rodgers.
Stafford tied Matt Ryan (223 games) as the second-fastest player to reach the milestone. According to NFL Research, only Drew Brees (215) reached the mark faster.
Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson is one of eight players to have at least 2,000 receiving yards from passes thrown by Stafford, and Johnson leads the group by a considerable margin. Johnson finished his career with 8,138 receiving yards from Stafford in 87 games.
"If he has healthy receivers and he's healthy, he's going to put numbers up. And he's been doing it since [he came into the league]," Johnson told ESPN.
"It really has a lot to do with his arm talent. I mean, the guy can put the ball anywhere. He's super accurate. Very accurate. He gets the ball to his guy so they can make a play and keep moving or just keep running," Johnson continued. "He could put the ball anywhere on the field. And that's the thing about playing that position is that not everybody can make all those throws, and he can make all the throws and he has the smarts to go along with it.
"So, he's able to see and put those balls in places before the receivers even come out of his route. He's able to read the defenses and shred them apart even when they're trying to blitz him. That's what makes him so special. He has all the tools."
As Stafford approached the milestone last season, ESPN asked him to list some of those passes that came to mind. These are the six he named, on the cusp of hitting the 60,000-yard milestone:
Nov. 22, 2009, vs. Cleveland Browns: A 75-yard touchdown pass to Johnson
The first play on the list came in Stafford's eighth career game.
"Threw a touchdown on a seven pump to Calvin off of like a waggle protection for about, I don't know, 60, 70 yards," Stafford said when recalling the play. "Kind of running to my left, threw it for a touchdown. That was a really cool one early on in my career."
The game -- one remembered for the moment later in the game where he threw a touchdown on the final play of the game, the play after taking a hit so hard he separated his shoulder -- was the second victory of Stafford's NFL career.
"I'm basically faking the corner route, which is a 15 to 20 yard route," Johnson said. "And I take maybe a step or a head nod just selling that I'm running to the corner towards the sideline, and then I split the safeties. It is a route that you want to run when you got a two safety look, so that you take it inside of the safety closest to you. Like I say, you split the safeties and you keep it tight, close to the hash and Matthew just puts it out there for me to run up under.
"And I love it because that was kind of like the beginning of our connection really, after he dealt with some injury I felt like. And then we came out strong ... but it was one of our longest connections, I feel like, during my time with him."
Oct. 2, 2011, vs. Dallas Cowboys: A 23-yard touchdown pass to Johnson
Trailing 30-17 in the fourth quarter against his hometown Cowboys, Stafford found Johnson in triple coverage in the end zone.
"He just pointed up to me and [I] threw it up to him," Stafford said. "He made a great catch."
"I didn't know he was going to throw me the ball, but I mean, he was looking for me on that pass and I looked back and I saw him looking and he didn't really have nowhere else to go, so I just threw my hand up and he graciously lobbed it up for me," Johnson said.
"I never throw my hand up and [say] throw me the ball, but it was just a situation where we were trying to get back in the game and it was really just like 'f-it, what do we got to lose?'"
The play showed the trust Stafford had in him, Johnson said.
"That was sweet because you usually don't ever throw it into coverage like that, but that just kind of showed the trust that he had in me and for me to go up and make a play and not allow it to get intercepted," Johnson said.
The Cowboys came back to win the game and beat the Cowboys 34-30 and improve to 4-0 on the season.
Oct. 27, 2013, vs. Cowboys: A 40-yard pass to Kris Durham
Two seasons later, Stafford had another memorable pass against the Cowboys.
"Threw a cool seam ball in the Dallas game to an old college roommate of mine, Kris Durham, down the left sideline to set up the one where I ended up jumping over the top."
On the drive before, the Lions had turned the ball over on downs on their own 31 while trailing 27-24. After holding the Cowboys on a field goal on their next drive, "we got the ball back and knew that we had to score a touchdown to have a chance to win," Durham said.
"On that play they were running kind of a cover two, and so I widened defensive back and then slipped him and then got back wide and Matthew had rolled to his right and then just put one on a line about 50 yards and hit me right in stride between the corner and the safety, which was an absolute incredible throw," Durham said.
After a 22-yard pass to Johnson on the next play, Stafford scored the touchdown himself, jumping over the top of the pile for the one-yard touchdown run.
Oct. 26, 2014, at Atlanta Falcons: A 59-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate
When the Lions played in London in 2014, Stafford set Detroit's passing touchdown record with a long pass to receiver Golden Tate.
Trailing the Falcons in the second half, Stafford escaped pressure and found Tate down the right sideline.
"Third and extra long against the Falcons in '14," Stafford said. "Three man rush kind of stepped up, threw it through a two Tampa. He was down the right sideline for a long touchdown. It was a cool throw."
The touchdown pass pushed Stafford past quarterback Bobby Layne. He had already set Lions franchise records for passing yards, completions and attempts.
Tate had 4,695 receiving yards from Stafford, which is the second-highest mark among players Stafford has thrown to.
Jan. 23, 2022, at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: A 44-yard pass to Cooper Kupp
Kupp had a historic year playing with Stafford during the 2021 season, ending the regular season with the receiving triple crown and being named Super Bowl LVI MVP.
Tied at 27 in the divisional round of the playoffs, Stafford and the Rams had a first down at their own 44-yard line.
"There are some plays where you hear the play call and you kind of anticipate, OK, this is coming my way," Kupp said last season, while playing for the Rams. "That was the last thing I was thinking when that play call came in."
But after the snap, Kupp said, he realized the Buccaneers were in Cover 0, but "just because I realized it's zero, who knows what's happening back on the line, who's in Matthew's face."
"And all you can do is beat your guy and then look up," Kupp said. "And I remember passing [Antoine] Winfield [Jr.] and being like, 'I just hope that this ball is in the air right now.' And looking up and sure enough, the ball was up there about a mile high, just floated up there for what seemed like forever."
"And what's crazy was for Matthew to be able to catch that, see that in Zero, know he's going to probably get hit, let it go when he did and put so much air on it, but still be able to hit me perfectly in stride. Because if I have to slow down at all, Winfield's a great football player, he is going to knock that thing down. And so for him to let that go when he did perfectly in stride in that moment, I mean I think it's a once in lifetime kind of throw from Matthew on that one."
"At the time I knew that the throw was incredible," Kupp said. "What I didn't realize was afterwards you go back and look at it and realize that he's letting that go, getting hit. And when he's letting it go is what is pretty incredible."
Kupp's 4,154 receiving yards from Stafford ranked third -- something the pair have accomplished in just four seasons.
Feb. 13, 2022, vs. Cincinnati Bengals: A 22-yard pass to Kupp
The final pass came on the biggest stage: Super Bowl LVI. Trailing by four midway through the fourth quarter, Stafford threw a no-look pass to Kupp.
"Earlier in that drive, we had hit a similar route where we had checked it down to Brycen Hopkins," Kupp said. "And we came back to the play a few plays later in the drive. And it was the same thing where it looked exactly like it."
As Kupp came out of his break, he said, he only got a glimpse of Stafford before the ball was out of his hand, "but it looked like everything was going, we were checking that thing down again."
"The thought coming out of it, seeing the coverage, I was like, 'yeah, that's probably the right read,'" Kupp said. "And then the next thought was the audacity on this dude to be throwing this ball where he is now. The snap from like, 'oh yeah, good decision' to 'I can't believe you're throwing this there' to, 'wow, I can't believe that was completed.' It was pretty crazy in that moment, the progression of thought that went through my head.
"For someone in that moment to make that throw is ridiculous."
The Rams won the game, giving them a championship season for the first time since 1999 and one in Stafford's first season in Los Angeles.