Out of nowhere on Thursday night during the NFL draft, Ian Rapoport shared some unexpected news about Matthew Stafford and his contract. He said on NFL Network that Stafford wants his contract adjusted to include more guaranteed money beyond the 2024 season, which is the last year of his deal with any guaranteed salary.
Stafford just signed an extension after the Rams’ Super Bowl win in February 2022, but he seemed to take a discount at the time and would now like more assurances financially as he looks to continue playing for a few more years.
On Friday night after the Rams wrapped up Day 2 of the draft, Sean McVay and Les Snead were asked about Stafford’s contract situation and their answers were brief.
“I’ve had good dialogue with Matthew,” McVay said. “We’ll keep those things in-house but he’s been working with our guys.”
Will he be at OTAs in May?
“He’s been working with our guys the last couple of weeks so that’s kind of where we’re at with that,” McVay said, sidestepping the question.
Snead was then asked if he’s encouraged the team and Stafford will come to a resolution, to which he said this: “We’re definitely jacked to have Matthew as our QB.”
McVay was asked again about Stafford’s status for OTAs, and while he did share a bit more about the ongoing conversations, he isn’t sure the veteran quarterback will be in attendance for OTAs, which are completely voluntary.
He and the Rams just want to make sure the team shows Stafford he’s appreciated and how much they want him to be the quarterback moving forward.
“We’re going to take it a day at a time. We’ll see,” McVay said. “So we’re going to try to figure it out. There’s nothing that’s more important than making sure that he feels appreciated and he knows how much we love him and want him to lead the way. I think that commitment that I think he wants to have can be reciprocated and we want to work towards figuring that out.”
The Rams’ offseason program has already begun, but things ramp up in May with on-field practices and again in June with mandatory minicamp. There have been no indications that Stafford is planning any sort of holdout, so hopefully this situation gets resolved relatively quickly.