At one point in the 2023 off-season, Matthew Stafford was at the forefront of rumors, but that didn’t faze him. He was at home with his four kids, enjoying his time off from the gridiron.
Reports surfaced in late June and early July that teams had attempted to trade for Stafford during the off-season and that the Rams were actively looking for a trade partner.
“I don’t react to it at all to be honest with you,” Stafford said of the rumors, “I’m too busy chasing around four kids.”
But as the 35-year-old quarterback grows older, a wave of uncertainty rises. What would be the best next-step for the franchise?
Reports also surfaced in mid-July that Los Angeles reached out to Stafford to work together on restructuring his contract — to which he declined their offer.
Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff suggested in mid-July that the team did not try to trade the veteran quarterback nor did they propose that he redo his deal.
“If we wanted out of Matthew’s deal, we could’ve walked away,” Demoff emphasized in an interview with The Athletic.
On Wednesday afternoon, Stafford had a conflicting statement, saying that the team did offer for him to redo his deal.
“They did [offer a restructure], Stafford explained, “I’ll keep all of those kind of conversations in-house.”
Sitting at $160 million in owed money over the course of the next four seasons, Stafford’s estimated $40 million average annual salary ranks as the ninth-highest annual salary in the NFL (tied with Daniel Jones and Dak Prescott).
Injury history has been something that haunts the outlook of Stafford. In 2023, he missed eight games with a significant and concerning neck injury for someone at the later stages of their NFL career. In the nine games played, he threw for 2,087 yards and ten passing touchdowns.
He’s looked good in training camp so far as a full participant in all drills — and he’s certainly in much better condition than he was during the 2022-23 season.
“I feel a lot better physically, Stafford told reporters on Wednesday, “I feel really healthy compared to where I was at this point last year, so that’s fun for me.”
