Dawgs By Nature
Rams are reportedly giving veteran QB’s agent permission to talk to other teams. Will Cleveland GM Andrew Berry get in on the conversation?
The Cleveland Browns quarterback room will have a new look in 2025.
That much is not in dispute after a season where the Browns received some of the worst quarterback play in NFL history from the trio of Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
When the Browns open training camp this summer, the group will likely be made up of a rookie selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, a veteran “bridge” QB to play if the rookie is not ready or gets injured, and a developmental quarterback, which DTR seems destined to fill for as long as he remains in Cleveland.
The Browns have had horrible luck when it comes to finding a bridge quarterback over the years, and some of the available free agents - Aaron Rodgers, Daniel Jones, Zach Wilson, Carson Wentz, and Jimmy Garoppolo - are the type of players that will do nothing to reverse that trend.
There is one player who may be available and who could actually help the Browns on the field - Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams.
It seems odd to think that the Rams would move on from Stafford after a season that saw him help the team reach the playoffs while completing 65.8 percent of his passes for 3,762 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just eight interceptions. While he has not come close to hitting his 2021 season stats, Stafford is still playing well enough that a contending team could use his services.
But Stafford just turned 37, is entering the final year of his current contract, and wants one more bag of cash before he calls it quits. While Stafford is due $49.6 million this season and carries a dead-money hit of $49.3 million, according to Over The Cap, the Rams are reportedly hesitant to pony up for the aging quarterback.
That led the Rams to reportedly give Stafford’s agent permission to start calling around the league to see if there is a team willing to give Stafford what he wants in a new contract, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show.
If the phone were to ring in general manager Andrew Berry’s office in Berea, you would think he would have to at least consider the idea of bringing Stafford to town. Talent-wise he would be the best quarterback the Browns have suited up since returning to the NFL in 1999, and would take any pressure off playing a rookie quarterback if there was any doubt about their readiness.
The hard part is what the final cost would be to acquire Stafford. A trade will involve a new contract and the Browns already have some math to work out to make everything fit as it is, even with the expected increase in this year’s cap.
There is also the question of what the Rams would want in...
