As the head coach, Sean McVay doesn’t have full authority over personnel and roster moves for the Rams. He works in tandem with general manager Les Snead to build the best team possible in Los Angeles, and he certainly has some say in who the Rams both bring in and ship out.
With L.A. making such a monumental move over the weekend by trading Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford, McVay absolutely played a role in the quarterback swap. As the coach, McVay is the one who has to work with the team’s quarterback, and he fully endorsed the deal for Stafford.
In fact, Albert Breer of The MMQB reported that McVay personally called owner Stan Kroenke to greenlight the team upping the ante to get the deal done.
Along those lines, McVay was the one who called Rams owner Stan Kroenke on Saturday to sign off on the team going the extra mile to get it done, spurred by some extra tape work he and Snead did. That work only cemented what McVay loved about Stafford already—how quickly he processes, his pocket movement, his play urgency, his ability to throw off platform or in rhythm and his tough, fearless style—which pushed Snead into the mode where he was going into the afternoon with the intention of getting a deal done.
Peter Schrager, who’s friends with McVay, tweeted after the trade was agreed to that the Rams coach is “over the moon” about acquiring Stafford, and that he “got his guy.”
Schrager also said McVay loves Stafford, zeroing in on the Lions quarterback as his target to replace Goff. It may have been a high price for the Rams to pay, but Stafford opens up the playbook for McVay thanks to his aggressiveness and ability to take shots downfield.
There are really fun details to how, why, and when this Rams-Lions trade went down.
McVay fell in love with Stafford. That’s what you need to know when you start analyzing picks and compensation and whatever else. McVay zeroed in and the front office made sure he got his guy.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) January 31, 2021
The Rams have at least two years to make this work with Stafford, as he’s signed through 2022. Since they gave up two first-round picks and a third-rounder to acquire him – as well as taking on $22.2 million in dead money – anything short of a deep playoff run and Super Bowl appearance will come as a disappointment.
For a quarterback with zero playoff wins, hopefully the Rams can help Stafford get over the hump of going winless in the postseason.
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