The Los Angeles Rams might have a bit of a problem growing this offseason and that’s the fact that Matthew Stafford seems unhappy with his contract.
According to NFL.com, Stafford wants the team to adjust his contract so that it includes more guaranteed money in the final two years of the deal (2025 and 2026). As it stands, Stafford has $31 million guaranteed for the 2024 season, but he has nothing assured after that. With the way the contract is currently set up, the Rams could easily move on from Stafford after the 2024 season and it appears he would like some assurance that the team plans to stick with him.
Rams coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead were asked about the situation Friday after the third round of the NFL draft and they mostly danced around the question. First, McVay was asked if the report was accurate that Stafford was unhappy with his deal.
“I had a good dialogue with Matthew,” McVay said, via team quotes. “We’ll keep those things in-house, but he’s worked with our guys and we’ll keep those things in-house.”
McVay and Snead were then asked if they thought the team would be able to “find a solution to the contract issue” and they essentially dodged the question.
“We’re definitely excited to have Matthew as our QB,” Snead said.
If Stafford is truly unhappy, he could skip OTAs this spring and McVay was asked what he thought about that possibility.
“We’ll take it day by day. We’ll see,” McVay said. “So we’re going to try to figure it out. There’s nothing more important than making sure he feels appreciated and that he knows how much we love him and want him to lead the way. I thinks that this commitment that he wants to have can be reciprocal and we want to work to understand that.”
Bottom line: They haven’t promised to fix the contract to Stafford’s liking and they seem well aware that he could skip OTAs if nothing is done. That being said, McVay pointed out that Stafford has been in the building working with the team for the past two weeks.
Stafford signed a four-year, $160 million extension with the team in March 2022, just one month after leading Los Angeles to a Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. The victory came just 13 months after Stafford was shockingly traded from Detroit to Los Angeles in a deal that was agreed in January 2021. In three seasons with the Rams, Stafford led Los Angeles to the playoffs twice, including the team’s Super Bowl-winning season in 2021.
If the Rams are hesitant to add money to Stafford’s contract, it could be due to the quarterback’s recent injuries. Although he was an iron man in Detroit, he has struggled with injuries over the past two seasons, including 2022 where he missed eight games.
While Stafford doesn’t have guaranteed money for the final two years of the deal, that could change in the coming months even if the two sides don’t rework the contract. Stafford is expected to have a base salary of $27 million in 2025 and $10 million of that will be fully guaranteed at some point in 2024, according to a contract breakdown from PFT.
The 36-year-old will also have an additional $5 million fully guaranteed on the third day of the league year in 2025, meaning he will have a total of $15 million in guaranteed money in 2025 assuming nothing changes between now and then. and then. If Stafford is the starter in 2024 and is cut after the season, he would walk away with a consolation $10 million.
The Rams have already proven they’ll move on from a quarterback if they think the time is right – they traded Jared Goff in the deal that brought Stafford to Los Angeles – so he’s not too surprising to see that Stafford wants financial assurances that he will be the QB of the future in Los Angeles.
