The Athletic’s Jeff Howe and others have talked about how the Los Angeles Rams’ buying an additional 2026 first-round decide throughout this 12 months’s draft may enable the membership to seize a alternative for beginning quarterback Matthew Stafford subsequent spring.
Throughout a current look on SiriusXM’s Mad Canine Sports activities Radio, Rams head coach Sean McVay steered he isn’t but serious about who will take Stafford’s place and when.
“We’ve an opportunity with him each time he is on the swap, and love working with him. And I feel he can play so long as he desires, however luckily, I am hoping it is a couple extra years,” McVay mentioned about Stafford, per Kevin Patra of NFL.com.
The Rams and Stafford are taking issues a 12 months at a time after the membership let him discover a commerce to both the New York Giants or Las Vegas Raiders earlier this offseason. Stafford reportedly accepted much less cash supplied by these groups to stick with the Rams through a revised contract, and he later admitted he “by no means actually needed to go away” what’s been his NFL dwelling since 2021.
“If you’re in a position to have actual conversations with folks you’re keen on and care about, you possibly can go considered one of two methods. You possibly can both get additional aside, or you may get nearer,” McVay mentioned about chats he had with Stafford earlier than the veteran put pen to paper on his settlement. “And there’s no query in my thoughts that he and I are nearer than ever. There’s lots of appreciation, there’s lots of gratitude that we had been in a position to work via a few of these issues. …It does not go misplaced on me how lucky I’m to have the ability to work with anyone as particular as he’s, each mentally, bodily, and extra importantly what he means with how he strikes as a person, and the way he positively impacts and influences his teammates and folks he is round.”
The Rams acquired second-round (No. 46) and seventh-round picks (No. 242) this 12 months and a 2026 first-round choice from the Atlanta Falcons for the twenty sixth decide of this 12 months’s draft and a 2025 third-round alternative (No. 101). As Matt Goul of the Cleveland Plain Supplier and others have famous, subsequent 12 months’s draft might be liable for what turns into a superb quarterback class.
Whereas McVay added that Stafford “got here out of this (previous) season feeling actually good bodily,” the one-time Tremendous Bowl champion turns 38 subsequent winter. Stafford could play “a pair extra years” earlier than he retires, however the upcoming marketing campaign might be his final as a member of the Rams.
