After some tense moments, Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams have decided to work things out and stay together. He is the ultimate comeback kid.
And, after a flurry of offseason uncertainty and speculations, the Rams’ star quarterback will be coming back to ‘Tinsel Town’ and the team he led to a Super Bowl title in 2021 and three playoff berths in four years.
On Friday, the Rams announced that Stafford will be staying with the team after months of intense chatter about whether they would trade him.
As Stafford’s situation played out and intensified, the Rams were looking at other possible contingency plans.
Veteran Jimmy Garoppolo was the backup last season, so he is familiar with coach Sean McVay’s quarterback-friendly system. But Garoppolo, 33 years old, was not considered a long-term solution. Stetson Bennett, a fourth-round draft pick out of the University of Georgia in 2023, is not regarded as a candidate to start.
Sam Darnold, the former USC star and the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft, who led the Minnesota Vikings to the playoffs, is among the pending free-agent quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers, 41 years old, a Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers and four-time NFL most valuable player, also will be available. But at his advanced age, he would have also been a bandage for a team eager to build on their success in the draft the last two seasons.
Stafford, 37, had two years left on the extension he signed in 2022 after leading the Rams to victory in Super Bowl LVI over the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium. The deal reportedly included $120 million in guarantees, according to Overthecap.com.
However, this was the second consecutive year that the Rams and Stafford’s representatives found themselves mired in negotiations to adjust Stafford’s deal, which was well under-market value compared to quarterback contracts signed over the past two years.
Last year, the impasse between the Rams and Stafford lasted until the first day of training camp and ended only when the Rams agreed to push $5 million forward from 2025, according to Overthecap.com. In other words, the Rams knew Stafford’s contract would be a year-to-year issue.
Embed from Getty ImagesStafford this season was scheduled to earn $23 million in salary, with $4 million guaranteed, on a salary-cap number of $49.7 million.
After speaking with Stafford’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, the Rams gave Stafford permission to explore contract terms with other teams if he was traded. The permission was granted to gauge Stafford’s value on the open market and did not close the door on a possible deal with the Rams.
So, Stafford, who ranks in the top 10 all time in NFL passing yardage, completions and touchdowns, will continue to carve up the record book with the Rams.
The top pick in the 2009 draft by the Detroit Lions, Stafford has passed for 59,809 yards and 377 touchdowns, with 188 interceptions. He accumulated 14,700 yards and 95 touchdowns, with 44 interceptions, during his first four seasons with the Rams.
Stafford came to Los Angeles after 12 seasons with the Lions, where he made his name as one of the league’s elite and toughest throwers of the football. But the Lions made the playoffs only three times and never won a postseason game. After the 2020 season, Stafford asked the Lions to trade him to a contender.
Earlier this week, McVay said on the “Fitz & Whit” podcast that the Rams’ “first goal” is to have Stafford remain the team’s starting quarterback but that the organization is trying to balance the short-term and long-term roster decisions that come from an adjusted contract.
“There is no dispute — and let’s not get it twisted in regarding to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback,” McVay said. “Now, there’s layers to it. You have to be able to say, ‘Hey, how do we continuously build? How do we support him? How do we make sure that he’s getting what is his worth relative to those things?'”
McVay, fresh off a disappointing NFC divisional-round defeat by the Green Bay Packers, jumped at the opportunity to replace Jared Goff with Stafford. The Rams sent Goff, two first-round draft picks and a third-round pick to the Lions for Stafford. The deal paid immense and immediate dividends for the Rams.
Stafford passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a 12-5 record. He engineered playoff victories over the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers before capping the season by passing for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium as stated previously.
In 2022, Stafford suffered a pair of major injuries, a concussion and then a spinal bruise that forced him to miss the final seven games of what proved to be the worst Super Bowl hangover in league history. In 2023, Stafford bounced back and passed for 24 touchdowns as the Rams rebounded from a 3-6 start to qualify for the playoffs.
Last season, Stafford passed for 20 touchdowns, with eight interceptions, as the Rams won the NFC West crown and won a wild-card game against the Vikings 27-9, before losing an NFC divisional-round game to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles in a snowstorm.
