So, did the Rams ask Matthew Stafford to restructure his contract or not? If you ask COO Kevin Demoff, the answer is no. He said that very clearly earlier this month, denying any reports that the Rams tried to trade Stafford or that they asked him to redo his contract.
“There were no discussions with Matthew about restructuring his contract,” Demoff said.
Stafford has a different take on the situation, however.
During his first training camp press conference on Wednesday, Stafford said the Rams did approach him about restructuring his contract, which directly contradicts what Demoff claimed less than two weeks ago.
“I’m always in contact with them again on everything in those regards. They did and I’ll keep all that kind of stuff, those kinds of conversations in-house. I’ll just leave it at that,” Stafford said.
He later added: “I don’t know what the technical term of it is, but we had conversations on that kind of stuff, and I’ll leave it at that.”
In this matter of “he said, he said,” it’s hard to take Demoff’s side. From his perspective, he doesn’t want it to seem like the Rams are having buyer’s remorse over the contract they just gave Stafford last offseason. If they were perfectly fine with the structure of his contract, why would they need to ask him to renegotiate it?
Put simply, it would make much more sense for Demoff to lie than it would for Stafford to.
The question now is what the Rams asked Stafford to change about his deal. Did they want him to take a pay cut? Did they want him to forego guaranteed money in future years to make it easier to move on from him? We’ll probably never know the details of those conversations, but it sure wasn’t a basic restructuring that they were considering.
Stafford would have no reason to decline a simple restructure like the Rams did with Joe Noteboom and Brian Allen. All that does is convert a portion of his base salary into a signing bonus, which actually gives the player more money up front and lowers his cap hit in the upcoming season.
Sean McVay was also asked Wednesday whether the Rams approached Stafford about renegotiating his contract, but he didn’t exactly give an answer.
“We always really just keep some of that stuff in-house,” he said. “There’s always constant dialogue between Matthew and myself, and I think he knows how appreciated he is from this organization and that we’re ready to move forward with him leading the way just like he’s done. And I feel really good about that.”
The Rams haven’t denied that they got calls from teams inquiring about a potential trade. Demoff indicated that none of the offers were good enough to even consider, but the team also didn’t immediately shut down those conversations. In other words, they would’ve moved him for the right price.
McVay said the Rams didn’t entertain any of the offers that came in, but there were “certainly some teams that had reached out.”
“No, I think that was addressed earlier. What happened – I wasn’t a part of those specific conversations, but I do know this,” McVay said. “There was a consistent and unanimous dialogue and understanding of when that March deadline came in, in terms of him being due the bonus that he’s deserved and that he’s earned, we were all in unanimous agreement that we wanted him to be the quarterback. There were certainly some teams that had reached out, as Kevin and both Les (Snead) had mentioned, but there was not anything that – I know I can certainly speak for all of us and say we’re excited as hell about Matthew Stafford. It’s been great to see him feeling good and I’m certainly really glad he’s our quarterback and that’s where we’re at.”
Stafford tried not to pay much attention to the trade rumors and other teams’ inquiries, but he was aware of them. And while he wasn’t on the calls directly, he did learn of the details from the Rams.
He takes it as a compliment that other teams would want to trade for him, but added that he’s happy where he’s at with the Rams.
“I don’t react to it at all, to be honest with you. I’m too busy chasing around four kids,” he said. “But, no, I hear that stuff. I have contact with them all the time. I’m not sitting in on all those calls, but I get to know most of the details. I see it as flattering, I guess, that other teams would want to reach out and have me come play for them. I just know that I’m really happy where I am playing for this team, playing for this coach and these fans.”
We won’t go as far as saying there’s trouble in paradise, but the team and the quarterback are clearly not on the same page when it comes to all of this. And if Colin Cowherd’s report was right, as Stafford’s comments suggest, perhaps the Rams really were frustrated by the quarterback declining to redo his contract.
The Rams showed commitment to Stafford by picking up his option bonus this offseason, which guaranteed him $62 million. But the fact that they approached him about renegotiating his contract – and seemingly lied about it – isn’t exactly a great sign.
