ESPN REPORT: Formal Rams QBJared Goff Land With Another Contract For Matthew Stafford….

The Los Angeles Rams and Matthew Stafford may be figuring out what the new right price for both sides will be. There are reports that Stafford would like to change his deal and the assumption is he wants more guaranteed money, but there also hasn’t been too much information revealed so most of it is speculation. I was wondering today is there any chance that Stafford and his camp want to see if Goff gets any type of extension? Could the Rams be waiting to see the same information? Quarterback contracts can shift the market and Goff’s next contract may have a chance to do just that.

Maybe my thought process is flawed but it was something I was pondering, and it seemed liked a fair question and decent Random Ramsdom! Please comment on whatever you’d like, check out the links below and have a great Saturday! Thanks for checking out Turfshowtimes!

“We saw a good deal of the Super Bowl-style Stafford late in 2023, with the aging gunslinger rediscovering his trademark passing gusto. But we have to remember he’s 36 with an injury history. The Rams are still in a weird middle ground of contending and restocking for the long haul.”

“It’s a tough league, it’s a 17-game season plus playoffs. Might go to 18 games one day, so we always felt like we needed to have as many quality runners as possible so we don’t just totally run down Kyren and we have one or two, or even three guys that can contribute, keep everyone fresh and let’s go and try to impose our will.”

With this mindset, it’s part of the reason why the team ended up drafting running back Blake Corum. Corum should give this team another powerful runner to pair alongside Kyren Williams.”

“When it comes to the LA Rams offense, 2023 was nothing to sneeze at. The offense’s ability to move the football was good enough for a Top 10 ranking (ranked seventh) while the ability to put points on the scoreboard was also good enough for a Top 10 ranking (ranked eighth). But if this team has any hopes to compete in, let alone win, Super Bowl LIX, the offense will need to do a lot better.

How much better? Well, to win it all, the offense must bear the load. At least through the course of the 17-game season. After all, the Rams offense averaged 23.8 points per game last season. That was in spite of the team sorting through multiple iterations of the offensive line, playing two games without starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams also had to weather the storm of five games without RB Kyren Williams, as well as five games without WR Cooper Kupp.”

“My culture taught me to always helps others, especially the less fortunate ones, never disrespect anyone’s beliefs and values and no work is too big or small”#AAPIHeritageMonth Staff Showcase: Karan Desai

 

Will Matthew Stafford still be the Rams quarterback post-2026?

Every offseason, the Athletic Football Show podcast does an exercise called “The Quarterback Draft.” Essentially, the hosts of the show draft quarterbacks (and their contracts) who they would want leading their franchise over the next three seasons. Three years from now is 2026. That’s the same offseason in which Matthew Stafford’s contract is set to expire. With that in mind, it’s worth thinking about the Los Angeles Rams future quarterback situation and if Stafford will still be the quarterback in three years.

To reiterate the rules here, the exercise isn’t necessarily based on which quarterback is better than the next. If that was the case, Stafford is undoubtedly top-7 at the position. This exercise looks at the quarterback position from a team-building perspective and which guy teams would most want leading their franchise for the next three years. Coming in at number 11 and behind Caleb Williams was Matthew Stafford.

While 11 may seem a little low, on a three-year timeline, it makes a lot of sense given Stafford’s age, injury history, and contract. Stafford will be going into his age 36 season and has missed at least one game each of the last two years. Matt Ryan who was also extremely talented and won an MVP went from throwing for 4,581 yards in 2020 at age 35 to playing his in last season two years later at 37. That’s not to say that is also the timeline for Stafford, but it’s certainly a modern reference point for a quarterback that isn’t Tom Brady.

While Phillip Rivers’ arm strength took a hit, he was still having success until age 39 which was his final year. Even if we use the Ryan timeline and it is only for the next two years, it’s a timeline that is realistic and lines up with the current ‘out’ in Stafford’s contract. Stafford has a $49.5M cap-hit this year which places him as the fourth highest-paid quarterback in 2024 behind Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, and Russell Wilson. In 2025, his $50.5 cap-hit puts him behind Derek Carr, DeshaunWatson, and Patrick Mahomes.

That cap-hit seems high, but Stafford is a player that remains worth betting on and building around. Again, the two-year timeline also ties in with when the Rams have an ‘out’ going into 2026 which is currently the final year of the deal. Moving on from Stafford would only cost the Rams $18.5M. That doesn’t mean that the Rams would move on from Stafford and there are reports that quarterback wants more guaranteed money. Stafford wanting more guaranteed money implies that he wants to play longer, locking him in for that 2026 season.

Robert Mays who took Stafford at 11 in the quarterback draft said,

“We’ve talked about it with Stafford — if this quarterback is the initial piece that you’re building around, what Matthew Stafford has been over the last couple of years, what has been asked of him, the throws that he has to make in that offense…you talk about throws being available to you? Anything is available to Matthew Stafford in the structure of that Rams offense. Truly anything. What he was able to do last year in terms of just throwing to all levels of the field, the creativity he showed within the pocket, I thought he was one of the best quarterbacks in football last year…full stop. You combine that with what he’s asked to do mentally before the play…I just think that he’s playing at such a high level that even at age 36/37/38, I would be willing to bet on him over the next three years over some of these other younger, cheaper guys that have more limitations and can’t bring me as far as the first piece in the offense that I’m building…Even with the injuries and even if he’s getting a little older. There are chances of disaster, there’s a chance this is his last year in the NFL and I’m left with whoever for two years.”

Looking at Stafford in this lens is an interesting exercise and certainly makes the Rams future at the quarterback position a little cloudy. As Mays said, disaster is within the realm of possibilities. While selecting a quarterback at 19 may have been a little high, it remains interesting that the Rams didn’t take a quarterback in the draft at all. That’s especially the case when considering everything surrounding Stetson Bennett and the state of the 2025 quarterback draft class. The Rams took Bennett in the fourth round last year in hopes that he would be their long-term backup and if everything worked out, potentially be a bridge to the next guy.

Instead, Bennett took a year away from the team after leading all quarterbacks in turnover worthy play percentage in the preseason and throwing three interceptions. Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, and Cooper Kupp are all on a yacht cruising down a clear river, but the water behind them is getting a little murky.

There is something to be said about taking a talented, young quarterback and allowing them to learn behind a great quarterback. However, what Stafford brings to the offense on a weekly basis makes throwing all of the chips at him worth it while he is still playing at the top of his game.

The Green Bay Packers selecting Aaron Rodgers while they had Brett Favre and then taking Jordan Love while they had Rodgers gets talked about a lot. It’s true that the Packers have had a near seamless transition between their last two quarterbacks. However, they also only have two Super Bowl titles between them when it can be argued that they should have more.

It somewhat made sense for the Packers to take Rodgers when they did as it had been a few years since Favre had played at a MVP level, but what if they had selected Roddy White or Logan Mankins? The Packers made the NFC Championship game in 2019. Instead of drafting a Tee Higgins or even Michael Pittman Jr., Green Bay traded up for Love. Go up one more spot and they could have had Brandon Aiyuk.

Looking at the Rams team-build over the last two years, it’s been clear that they are set up to go all-in and make a serious push in 2025. Last year was setting the foundation and the set up to the set up. This season is about putting the beams up and ensuring that the “weight baring walls” are in place. In 2025, the house will be built and ready to add any final pieces that may be needed. That’s not to say that the Rams won’t compete for a title this year, but the 2025 season looks to be the best last chance for a Super Bowl run with the current core of players.

That’s a big reason why not taking a quarterback and investing all-in on Matthew Stafford this offseason made the most sense. The Rams signed Jonah Jackson and re-signed Kevin Dotson. Steve Avila will move to center which will give Los Angeles one of the bigger interior offensive lines in the NFL. The goal is clearly to keep an aging Stafford protected and healthy which is similar to how the New Orleans Saints approached Drew Brees in his final years. Without Stafford, they have no shot. Derrick Klaasen of Reception Perception and Bleach Report discussed this as a co-host of the exercise. Said Klaasen,

“How much do I want to weight his age and health and stuff? I think if we were doing just a one year draft of talking about who was just the best last year, Stafford is top-5 period. It’s probably the first four guys we drafted and then Stafford. I think you can make the case that with the way that he was playing last year is better than Justin Herbert. When you talk about accessing every single level of the field all of the time from anywhere in the pocket from any arm angle and he knows it, you unlock this level of almost a different way to play the position.”

The positives with Stafford significantly outweigh any of the negatives. When he is at his absolute best, you get games like the performance against the Baltimore Ravens or even the Detroit Lions in the NFC Wild Card round that ended in a loss. In just three years with, the Rams have gotten arguably the greatest receiving season and rookie receiving season with Stafford slinging the football.

Coming back to the original, underlying question of whether or not Stafford will still be the Rams quarterback in three years after the 2026 season — It’s hard to say. The answer is probably not. That would put Stafford in his age 39 season. As mentioned earlier, that was also the final season of Phillip Rivers. Looking at how contracts are set up, the year following 2026 could end up being a giant reset. That’s currently the final year of Puka Nacua’s deal and May of 2026 is also when the Rams would need to decide on the fifth-year option of Jared Verse. Free agents that were signed this offseason in Jonah Jackson and Kevin Dotson also weren’t extended past 2026.

Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Rams do navigate the next three years with Stafford’s age and contract in mind. Again, investing everything into Stafford over the next two years makes the most sense and it’s how the Rams have set up their roster. The next championship window will be open for the next two years. Les Snead and co. will look to capitalize on that and maximize it.

Much like this past draft process in which Los Angeles seemed to be linked to quarterbacks, that will likely be the same next year as well. However, the Rams could end up passing on the 2025 class altogether and then start considering a young quarterback again in the 2026 draft. They could also simply decide to go with a bridge-type quarterback or make a move if there is a trade opportunity like they did with Stafford.

Of course, it’s all just speculation and there is a lot of time between now and that 2026 offseason. These conversations aren’t necessarily fun to think about, but they are worth having at this stage of the calendar year. The Rams didn’t take a quarterback in the draft and that’s completely ok with their current team-build. It makes sense to push the chips into the middle when Matthew Stafford is the ace in your hand. There’s no need to bluff or put in a blind bid to see what card is flipped next. More times than not, when Matthew Stafford is the ace, that’s good enough to win the hand.