For Matthew Stafford, three weeks felt like much longer with his future in limbo. Would he stay with the Los Angeles Rams, or ultimately be traded to the New York Giants or Las Vegas Raiders?
On Feb. 28, Stafford made his decision: He would stay with the Rams on a restructured deal. According to NFL Network’s Peter Schrager, Stafford will earn about $15 million less with the Rams compared to the Giants' offer. The whole process seemed to weigh on Stafford, who would have had to uproot his family (wife and four kids) to move to the East Coast.
“Three weeks of that uncertainty is never fun, whether that’s in a job or life or whatever it is,” Stafford said on his wife Kelly’s “The Morning After” podcast that published on Thursday. “You gotta find things to occupy your time. I played a lot of golf, tried to work out, just things to kind of keep your mind off it ‘cause you sit there and think about all those uncertainties all day you go crazy.”
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Schrager said on the Bill Simmons podcast that the Rams did not want to trade Stafford. But they merely let him and his agent talk to other teams to assess his value and then they’d regroup to see if an altered deal was possible in Los Angeles. Clearly, it was. Stafford was due a base salary of $49 million total over 2025-26 with $4 million guaranteed in 2025 and no guaranteed money in 2026. It is unclear what the contract is now.
NJ Advance Media’s Ryan Novozinsky reported that the Giants were “hellbent” on acquiring Stafford, and The Athletic reported Friday that the Giants had discussed a two-year deal between $90-100 million and reports indicated the Giants were willing to go to $50 million a year.
“What I think the trade compensation would’ve been — the Giants give up their second-round pick, which is the 34th pick, and then the Rams give up a third round and Stafford,” Schrager said.
“But then Stafford would need to tear up the contract and have a massive contract, which would’ve been paying him close to $15 million more per year than what he’s essentially going to play for, with the Rams.”
Stafford would have been the offseason’s best available quarterback. He enters his age-37 season following an impressive campaign that saw him lead the Rams to the NFC divisional-round playoff game after a 10-6 regular season. He threw for 3,762 yards with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions during the regular season.
“It’s humbling. That’s the biggest thing,” Stafford said of the interest in him. “... I was talking to Kelly the other day just about this process and how it can sometimes feel like such a negative, it’s a tough thing, you’re going through all these things, but at the same time was talking to somebody and they kind of gave me the perspective of like, ‘Man, this is such a positive time in your life, right? You’re 37 years old going into your 17th season and somebody still wants you to be on their team. That’s a rare occurrence and something I don’t take for granted and take lightly.
“It’s still a humbling thing to have teams and, most importantly, the team I’m playing for in the Rams excited about me being a part of their team and helping them lead the way. It’s a cool thing and hopefully, we have a great season and get to figure it out again next year and continue to keep playing, we’ll see.”
Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s first “big swing” of the offseason came up empty. What’s next?