They wanted Matthew Stafford. They didn’t get him. Now, where will the Raiders go for a quarterback in 2025?
TheAthletic.com recently reported that the Raiders prioritized Stafford because minority owner Tom Brady and G.M. John Spytek aren’t “super high on Sam Darnold or the other potential free agents.” That claim came a day after multiple reports indicated the Raiders are pivoting to the likes of Darnold, Russell Wilson, and Justin Fields.
That said, the coaching staff reportedly prefers a proven veteran to a rookie. There’s also no guarantee either of the top options — Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders — will be available when the Raiders pick at No. 6.
The options currently on the roster are Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. Whether and to what extent they’re able to find an upgrade remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, to the extent that Brady will be a closer for the Raiders in free agency, he’s 0-2 when it comes to twisting arms. They targeted Ben Johnson and Stafford; they got neither.
The Raiders wanted quarterback Matthew Stafford. They made their pitch. Shot their shot. And it didn’t work out.
At the end of the day, the Raiders (and to a similar extent the Giants) served as Stafford’s leverage in his effort to get the Rams to give him more money.
According to TheAthletic.com, the Raiders were willing to give Stafford a two-year deal in the range of $90 million to $100 million. That would have put his average salary at $45 million to $50 million.
The report also suggests that a second-round pick might have gotten the deal done with the Rams, if Stafford ultimately had wanted to leave L.A. As mentioned on Friday’s PFT Live, we’d heard the magic number was a second-round pick — which created the impression that the Rams wouldn’t have been too upset about letting him go.
But Stafford decided to stay. The specifics regarding his new deal have not yet emerged.
Stafford has two years left on his current contract. He’s due to make $27 million in 2025 and $31 million in 2026, for a total of $58 million and an average of $29 million. The Rams will presumably enhance the cash for the next two years with voidable years that spreads the cap charge.
Stafford has every right to want more than Jared Goff’s $53 million per year. If the Raiders (and perhaps the Giants) were offering something in the range of $45 million to $50 million annually, Stafford likely fell short of matching Goff.
Maybe the contract will include incentives that can get Stafford there, based on how he performs. Or maybe the new contract will add some phony-baloney non-guaranteed salaries beyond 2026 that will drive up the new-money average.
Regardless, four years after arriving from Detroit, Stafford decided not to leave L.A. Which means he’ll be getting more than $29 million per year over the next two years. The actual amount that his flirtation with the Raiders and the Giants squeezed from Stan Kroenke’s coffers remains to be seen.
Matthew Stafford isn’t the only Rams player with a new contract.
According to multiple reports, left tackle Alaric Jackson has agreed to an extension with the team. Jackson’s new deal will run three years and be worth $57 million with $35 million in guaranteed money.
The news comes a short time after Stafford and the Rams agreed to a revised contract that puts an end to the trade talk that has swirled around the quarterback since the end of the Rams’ season.
Jackson signed with the Rams after going undrafted out of Iowa in 2021 and appeared as a reserve in four regular season games and two postseason contests. He started six games in 2022 and has been a regular starter up front whenever healthy for Los Angeles the last two seasons.
The Rams have made it official.
The team confirmed reports that they have agreed to a new deal with quarterback Matthew Stafford on Friday afternoon. The team called it a contract restructure as Stafford had two years left on his current pact and offered no details about the new agreement.
Stafford had spoken to the Giants and Raiders in recent days and reports indicated that he was looking at two-year offers with somewhere around $90-100 million in guaranteed money from those clubs.
Stafford had base salaries of $23 and $26 million left on his original deal with the Rams, but his revised contract is sure to move his compensation more in line with other established starting quarterbacks around the league.
Matthew Stafford’s new deal with the Rams sends the Raiders in a new direction at the quarterback position.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, Las Vegas will now explore veterans like Sam Darnold, Russell Wilson, and Justin Fields.
Darnold has been previously linked to the Raiders. Wilson was a knee-jerk, connect-the-dots name after Pete Carroll got the head-coaching job with the Raiders. However, it got rocky near the end of Wilson’s time in Seattle, culminating in a report that Wilson tried to get Carroll fired.
Fields could be an intriguing option, given that he still hasn’t reached his full potential in the NFL.
The absence of Aaron Rodgers’s name from the list is interesting, given that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady is heavily involved in the process of picking a quarterback. It’s possible that Rodgers simply isn’t interested in a team that has a long way to go to contend in a division that has three playoff teams — and one perennial AFC juggernaut.
In time, they’ll get someone. Whether it’s their first choice (or, given the failed pursuit of Stafford, their second) remains to be seen.
Earlier this week, Aaron Rodgers (through his agent) reached out to the Giants. With the Rams and Matthew Stafford reaching an agreement that will keep Stafford in L.A., Rodgers’s interest in the Giants might be mutual.
The fact that Rodgers sought out the Giants strongly suggests that objectively “good” teams aren’t interested. With the Giants looking for a quarterback who can help the current power structure keep co-owner John Mara from cleaning house, Rodgers could be the best option for an immediate upgrade.
The Giants have said they hope to pair a veteran with a rookie. Which could make things awkward if, for example, the Giants are 5-4 and they decide it’s time to let the new guy play. Which is precisely what happened in 2004, when Kurt Warner was benched for Eli Manning.
Still, that’s a problem for later. The Giants’ more immediate concern is that Stafford is off the board. The first domino in the quarterback carousel has fallen. The Giants want a veteran. Rodgers could end up being the answer.
It would keep Rodgers in New York/New Jersey. Same stadium, same house, different locker room and uniform.
For the first time ever, he’d face the Packers, who are due to visit the Giants in 2025. Rodgers also would get a chance to tell Bears fans that he still owns them. And we’d finally see — assuming both are healthy — the first-ever game between Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. To increase the chances of that happening, the league should set Chiefs-Giants for Week 1.
First, the Giants need to sign him. The chances of that happening are higher now than they were before Stafford decided to renew his vows with the Rams.
Matthew Stafford will remain the Rams’ starting quarterback for the 2025 season.
According to multiple reports, Stafford and the Rams have agreed to terms on a revised contract that will keep him in Los Angeles.
Stafford spent time talking to the Giants and Raiders in recent days about what kind of contract they would give him because he and the Rams had not been able to come to an agreement on a new deal. Stafford heard those pitches and went back to a meeting with the Rams on Friday as the league waited to find out if a trade was going to be made.
The terms of his new agreement with the Rams have not been revealed. Stafford was set to make a base salary of $23 million, which is a lot less than other quarterbacks with fewer NFL accomplishments, and reports indicated that the other teams were offering in the neighborhood of $90-100 million over the next two seasons.
The Rams offer a far better chance to win than the other clubs, so the price tag for this deal might not be quite as high. Whatever the number, the Rams are holding onto their guy and the Giants and Raiders will have to look elsewhere to solve the massive problem in the middle of their offenses.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford has been talking to other teams about a potential change of address this offseason and he’s reportedly set to speak to his current one to close out the week.
Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that Stafford is set to meet with the Rams on Friday. The quarterback and/or his representatives have also had conversations with the Giants and Raiders this week.
Per Russini, those conversations have included discussions of a two-year contract that would pay Stafford $90-100 million in guaranteed money. That’s significantly more than Stafford is set to make over the final two years of his current deal and compensation has been the sticking point in previous talks with the Rams about continuing their relationship.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said this week that a continuation is the team’s desired outcome, but it will take a different stance on the contract front. If nothing changes there, the Rams will likely start talking to the other teams about trade terms that would shake up the quarterback picture for several clubs heading into the 2025 season.
Tom Brady’s meeting with Matthew Stafford was apparently productive.
The Raiders and Stafford’s camp have found common ground on what a new contract could look like, the Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting.
Although “common ground” is not the same thing as actually agreeing to the terms of a contract, the report strongly suggests that if the Rams and the Raiders can come to an agreement on a trade, Stafford and the Raiders can come to an agreement on a contract.
Whether the Rams and Raiders can agree is another matter. The same report says the Raiders “want to keep the No. 6 pick at all costs.” If the Raiders will not part with their first-round pick to get Stafford, then the Raiders might not get Stafford even if they’re on the same page about how much to pay Stafford.
It’s still possible that the Rams will keep Stafford. In fact, the Raiders finding common ground with Stafford on a contract could help the Rams and Stafford to find their own common ground. But the Rams opened the door to moving Stafford by giving him permission to talk to other teams. And the Raiders’ talks with Stafford appear to be productive.
Embedded in the question of whether Raiders minority owner Tom Brady hosted Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is the more important question of whether the permission that the Rams gave to Stafford’s agent to speak with other teams included blanket permission for Stafford to meet with other teams.
The NFL says it did.
“Not getting into when/where/how/if there was a meeting,” chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email on Thursday morning. “But there’s no issue here as the club gave permission.”
The answer from the league on the ultimate issue of tampering has arrived before the Rams responded to the question of whether the team actually gave Stafford permission to be actively recruited via meetings with coaches, executives, or owners of other teams.
The message, then, is clear. If you want Stafford, bring him to town. Or go see him. Make your pitch in person. Per the league, it’s fair game.
The NFL’s position on the matter still doesn’t answer whether it was a chance encounter or a full-blown sit-down. If it was the latter, there was no problem with it, in the eyes of the league.
