Calvin Johnson was with the Lions for seven of Matthew Stafford’s 12 seasons in Detroit, putting up Hall of Fame numbers with Stafford as his quarterback. The Lions didn’t have much success as a team despite having these two stars leading the offense, but it wasn’t exactly their fault.

We’re seeing that now with Stafford leading the Rams to the Super Bowl in his first season in Los Angeles, showing he wasn’t the problem in Detroit. Johnson unfortunately only made the playoffs twice in his decorated career, but he’s thrilled to see Stafford thriving with the Rams now.

Ahead of Super Bowl LVI, Johnson shared what he thinks of Stafford reaching the big game on the “Rich Eisen Show.”

“It’s great. I’m happy for the kid. When we were in Detroit, the years we were trending toward the playoffs, we felt like we had a team that could take it all the way – and a lot of that is because we had a great quarterback.”

Johnson has kept in touch with Stafford throughout the season, and texted him after the NFC Championship. He doesn’t want to bother the Rams quarterback this week because he wants him to focus on beating the Bengals, which Johnson fully expects Stafford and the Rams to do.

“I’ve been choppin’ it up with Matt. I hit him up every now and then,” he said. “I hit him after the game the other day, just happy. I just said ‘championship.’ That’s all it said. Just extremely happy. I’m not going to talk to him this week. I just want him to go out there and get the job done and I fully expect him to win it, but I’m really hoping that he does because one, he’s a friend. Two, just really proud of what he’s done – one, in Detroit, but being in the first year, they brought you in here to go to the championship and you’re ready to do that, so that’s just awesome.”

Johnson is already a Hall of Famer after twice leading the NFL in receiving yards and holding the single-season record with 1,964 yards in 2012 – a mark Stafford almost helped Cooper Kupp break this year.

Stafford doesn’t yet have a Hall of Fame resume, but if he wins a ring with the Rams and continues to have success in the second half of his career, he can absolutely build a case to make it to Canton with his former wide receiver.