NFL Trade Rumors
Rams QB Matthew Stafford‘s future with the team is murky due to uncertainty about how long he will play and his desire for a significant pay raise.
Both sides seem to want to get a deal done to keep Stafford with the Rams but reports are the veteran signal-caller is seeking north of $50 million per season.
Los Angeles HC Sean McVay gave his input on the situation, expressing his unwavering desire to retain Stafford despite all that has transpired.
“When you talk about the elephant in the room, these are the things that are really challenging because there’s no discrepancy on us wanting him to continue to lead the way and be our quarterback,” McVay said, via the Fitz and Whit podcast. “The interesting and the challenging dilemma and dynamics within this are, ‘Hey, how do you continuously as a head coach look at the short term and the long term and be able to figure out what does that really look like?’ There’s no dispute. And let’s not get it twisted in regards to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback.”
McVay said he and Stafford have had constant communication throughout the process thus far but acknowledged how difficult it is to view the situation without looking at the long-term future.
“He and I have had great dialogue throughout this process. I know where we want it to be able to end up, but these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum and that’s kind of the challenging part about it, but love this guy and he’s been incredible for us.”
Stafford’s cloudy future has played a major role in this development and McVay opened up on how difficult it has been to figure out what’s the best move after how much Stafford has done for the organization.
“But what’s hard about it is, is when you’re saying, OK, what is that timeline where we’ve got this absolute stud leading the way, and then what does that look like to be able to measure, all right, if in fact it’s hard to be able to come to a consensus in a regard, so what does it look like to bring you back? What are the things that you can get in return to continuously build the team? There’s no right way. You could never put a value on how important he’s been to us, like, especially at a force multiplier position. And that’s why you have a lot of sleepless nights and what you do know is this: There’s no doubt in my mind who I want to be our quarterback.”
Stafford, 37, is a former first-round pick of the Lions, who took him with the No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia in 2009. He was in the final year of a five-year, $76.5 million contract when he and the Lions agreed to a five-year, $135 million extension back in 2017.
Stafford was involved in a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange...
