Speculation about Matthew Stafford‘s future is now over. The decorated quarterback will remain with the Rams for at least one more season. 
A new, restructured deal was first reported to be agreed upon by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The team has since announced the news that Stafford is staying put. He will play a fifth season with the Rams.
Financial details have not yet emerged, but Ian Rapoport of NFL Network notes this new Rams deal will be worth less than Stafford could have landed on a pact with a new team. A trade remained a distinct possibility once his camp received permission to find a trade partner, a development which came about amidst challenges with respect to working out another short-term arrangement. Team and player avoided a training camp holdout last year by increasing Stafford’s 2024 pay without adding new years (or future guarantees) to his pact.
As a result, the Super Bowl winner approached the new league year with $27MM in base pay scheduled, including a $4MM roster bonus due next month. Finding a resolution before that point represented a logical goal for all involved, and an agreement has in fact been made. The most recent reporting on this storyline – the dominant topic of conversation at the Combine – noted Stafford was set to speak with the Rams today.
To say the least, that summit has gone over quite well. Stafford will continue his tenure in Los Angeles, which has included a Super Bowl win and one of his two career Pro Bowls. He has continued to deal with a number of ailments during the second chapter of his NFL tenure, however, and in 2022 he was limited to only nine games played. The Georgia product has remained generally durable since then, but questions of availability will remain moving forward.
In the wake of the Rams’ divisional round loss, Stafford took time to contemplate his future. He quickly made it known he intended to continue playing in 2025, and Sean McVay and the Rams have repeatedly stated their desire to keep him in the fold. That will be the case in spite of numerous conversations taking place between Stafford’s camp and interested teams. In particular, the Raiders and Giants made pitches to work out a contract agreement in the hopes of then attempting to generate a suitable package of draft capital to send to Los Angeles.
Both Las Vegas and New York were believed to be prepared to make a two-year offer including between $90MM and $100MM in guarantees. That comes as little surprise considering Stafford was known to be angling for an AAV of $50MM on his next pact. The Rams were reportedly unwilling to meet that asking price, so it will be interesting to see how this new arrangement takes shape. If additional void years are included as part of today’s arrangement, Stafford’s 2025 cap hit ($49.67MM) could be reduced.
The Raiders and Giants will now be forced to look elsewhere at the QB position. Stafford represented a massive offseason domino at the position, and the effect today’s news has on the other experienced passer set to reach the market will be notable. With an underwhelming draft class looming, teams could move with urgency in March to secure short-term fixes under center.
Veteran backup Jimmy Garoppolo is a pending free agent, and his departure could lead to the Rams leaning on 2023 fourth-rounder Stetson Bennett (who has yet to play in the regular season) to handle QB2 duties. A Stafford successor is not in place in the organization, and his regression in statistical output from 2024 offers a warning sign that more could be coming in that regard moving forward. Nevertheless, McVay and the Rams will enjoy continuity atop the depth chart next season.
Missed your best opportunity to start the rebuild.
The rebuild has already been happening around him. That defensive line is excellent already and it’s got four guys with either one or two years of service time. They also have a number one receiver with half a rookie contract left who hasn’t turned 24 yet. They have roster building work to do and eventually they’ll have to find their next quarterback, but they’re still a likely playoff team with Stafford and it’s a bad year to need a QB.
They need to address OL and back 7 on the defense. They have hit on all their DL picks or damn close to it. I think they’ll be fine trying to win one more in Stafford’s twilight.
@Oooof. Agree definitely a bad year for a team to draft a qb. They could’ve traded stafford and gotten Rodgers it’s a step back. Might’ve been worth a shot for a 2nd round pick. I think Rodgers will have to take a paycut.
There is nothing to rebuild. The Rams are a top 3 franchise in football and don’t need to rebuild with how well they draft. Got the two best defensive lineman in the 2024 class with a late 1st and trade up. They have a wide open Super Bowl window with Puka, Young, Turner, Fiske and Verse on rookie deals
“wide open superbowl window with Puka, Young, Turner, Fiske, and Verse on rookie deals”
Lmao no they don’t.
They have long as Stafford stays around. No QB = No Superbowl. Once Stafford is gone unless Rams have a succession plan, youre at best the Steelers who are by far and away not Superbowl contenders running out Pickett, Rudolph, Wilson, Fields
Unfortunately for Rams fans
Hurts is 26
Goff is 30
Daniels is 24
And youre not even guaranteed to be the best in your own division with Seahawks, 49ers, and Cardinals very competitve themselves, all who have younger QBs than the Rams do.
Rams have Sean McVay calling their plays, not Arthur Smith and Matt Canada with Mike Tomlin refusing to adapt to modern football. They are going to make a succession plan within the next year and I wouldn’t be shocked if they took a QB high up this year. The Rams dline put up 7 sacks on the Eagles which is absurd. Name another team that came close to doing that last season. And that was their first year together
Yeah and when Kevin O Connell lost Kurt Cousins forced to play Nick Mullins Joshua Dobbs Vikings went 7-10.
And when Stafford was injured back in 2022 rams finished 5-12
They were 3-6 with Stafford and 2-6 without him.
You’re putting a lot of faith into a coach who hasn’t proven he can win without elite talent at QB.
But to each their own. Oh wow 7 sacks. Are you citing sacks because the rams lost both meetings to the eagles 37-20 and 28:22? Well congrats on the 7 sacks. You still lost to superbowl champions
Are you kidding me he went to a super bowl with Jared Goff lmao. Your slight is the 2022 season when they had arena football players as backup QBs? What a joke of an argument. As soon as they got Baker Mayfield the offense looked functional again. The offense looked good with Jimmy G and Wentz who are at least NFL players when they got their chance week 18. Neither of them are the heir apparent but they are a lot more reflective of NFL results than Bryce Perkins and John Wolford. They have the next year to make a plan for life after Stafford. I brought up sacks because the defensive line is the best part of their team and the Eagles offensive line is notoriously great. I said it to demonstrate their upside, not as some kind of moral victory. They lost and there are things to clean up but to say a team playing in the divisional round with a roster full of rookie cant win a super bowl is absurd
I think the Rams need to find a succession plan but with Stafford in place. Maybe they draft a guy they like and next year after having a better idea if they selected the right guy make that decision but putting a team ready to win now in the hands of a rookie QB in this QB class doesn’t seem smart. I think it turned out to be window dressing Stafford got to gauge his value on the market
You do realize it takes 1 year/1 draft to do a full rebuild? It’s not like MLB
Plus the rams are not in the rebuild phase right now
Definitely a no brainer. McVay and Stafford work well with each other and have had success. Good move.
This always made the most sense. The Rams are more of a win now team than any of the teams that were supposedly considering him anyway.
Whole lotta hot air from media. It never made sense for them to let him go.
3 of 4 yrs in playoffs including SB win with Stafford. Yes, a “win now” team. Keep it going LA.
Four options:
1: play out the contract
2: restructure
3: Raiders
4: Giants
3 & 4 is what happens when you don’t do 1
Subplot: This ends the “Rodgers to Rams” speculation as well.
Thank You Baby Jesus!
… not that it’ll end ALL “Rodgers to…” articles
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Those won’t even end after he retires. He’ll “hint at returning” after his first year of retirement. He does love those headlines that have his name in them…
I was hoping the Dodgers could get him!
Maybe with 97% of the contract deferred…
I was thinking Saints, after they restructured 27 contracts and released anyone who was left.
So until the $$$ amount of the deal is made clear, its difficult to determine the impact it may have on the Rams overall roster going forward….don’t count on all these young guys the article touts that overachieved to continue doing it….they may, but by appeasing McVay and Stafford, the Rams may have put themselves in a Cowboys situation where their money is spread between a few players with the rest of their roster made up of guys that fit the cap but don’t improve the teams overall strength….
Poor, poor Aaron. There goes his ride of going to the rams lol. McVay was smart hanging on to stafford
Ah all the conspiracy theories with Stafford going skiing with Brady can be tossed in the trash.
I honestly think a conspiracy theory involving golf would have gained more traction. Guys their age look out of place around the young ski bunnies 🙂
Hey man that was tampering and you know it!
It wasn’t lmao
In other words, not team was willing to give up a first round pick to acquire a 37 year old QB that wants 50 million a year.
This whole situation was a big blow up over nothing in my opinion. Rams had agreed with Stafford for him to test market for trade value. Basically having other teams do it to learn value. Come up with numbers for new contract. Rams were never going to trade him with nothing in place as a QB for next year. Media, fans and teams fed the frenzy. In the end they are getting what they were trying to do