The rumor mill sure did swirl this offseason when it came to Matthew Stafford and his future with the Los Angeles Rams. However, those rumors about the team trying to trade him or redo his contract don’t hold any water, according to COO Kevin Demoff.
Demoff made it very clear that the Rams didn’t try to trade Stafford this offseason, nor did they ask him to rework his contract. There were reports of both scenarios, the first coming from Michael Lombardi and the latter from Colin Cowherd, but Demoff denied both rumors this week.
During an interview on The Athletic’s “11 Personnel” podcast, Demoff set the record straight about Stafford’s future in L.A. Though the Rams didn’t shop Stafford or try to redo his contract, Demoff did suggest that teams inquired about him on the trade market.
“Those conversations frustrated me because I think it’s trying to inject narratives that aren’t there,” Demoff said. “I know there are reports that we tried to trade Matthew. We were not actively trying to trade Matthew. I know Les has rebuffed that before. It’s just not the case. I think if you wanted to be in the reality of the NFL, there are 10 teams this year, at least, that are going to have different quarterbacks. We were obviously aggressive in remaking our roster in March. It would be naive to think that people didn’t inquire about what was going to happen with the player who the year before won the Super Bowl. It’s different than whether people inquire, whether there are casual conversations.”
Now, had a team offered a trade package that blew away the Rams, they’d have at least listened, Demoff said. But, that didn’t happen and so Stafford is remaining Los Angeles’ quarterback in 2023 and beyond.
“He is a pillar, we value him highly,” he said of Stafford. “Now, again, if someone did come in offering a ridiculous trade package, I think you owe it to your organization to listen the same way you would anyone. I think Les said people called about nine players during the offseason. That’s grown probably since that time.”
According to Demoff, if the Rams wanted to get out of Stafford’s deal this offseason, they very easily could have. Obviously, that would’ve had to happen before $59 million of his contract became fully guaranteed in March, but if they wanted to walk away from the veteran quarterback with no penalty, they could have.
“We value Matthew highly. Sean made that clear to him in the offseason. Les did. I think everybody did,” Demoff said. “And look, when you hear the report, the part that frustrated me was this notion that we were trying to get away from the $59 million and that was the only way to do it through trade. That tells you that you didn’t have an understanding of the situation. Matthew’s dollars after 2022 were unguaranteed. We could’ve walked away this year, free and clear, for $0. No future money owed. So there was no need to restructure. If we wanted out of Matthew’s deal, we could’ve walked away. We didn’t have to trade him to relieve the $58.5 million. We could’ve just walked away. To me, that’s where there’s a fundamental understanding of what his deal was that drives the narrative, ‘Oh, we were desperately trying to get rid of that.’”
As expensive as $58.5 million seemed, Demoff doesn’t think it’s much money compared to some of the deals other players got this offseason. He even mentioned Jimmy Garoppolo and Derek Carr as comparisons for Stafford’s deal.
“It’s not like this is some outlandish deal,” he said. “There were plenty of quarterbacks this year who signed for $80 million-plus in the first couple of years. So $58.5 million when you’re talking the next years is really not top-quarterback money.”
By picking up Stafford’s option and guaranteeing him $58.5 million, the Rams fully committed to him as their quarterback for years to come. He has cap hits of $49.5 million to $50.5 million from 2024-2026 with very little options for the Rams to get out of it before 2025.
“There were no discussions with Matthew about restructuring his contract,” Demoff said again. “We knew what was on it, but because it was unguaranteed, it could’ve been zero. If we had really wanted to restructure a contract, you just walk away from it and say, ‘Hey, we’ll have a conversation from there.’ The biggest point is it misses (that) this organization is fully committed to Matthew, believe in him, believe in what he did. View last year as an anomaly for a number of reasons.”
So long as Stafford stays healthy, he should be the Rams’ quarterback for the foreseeable future, being under contract through 2026. They do have Stetson Bennett as his backup, but he’s not expected to be the starter anytime soon.
No. 9 is here to stay for a while longer.
