With the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl window all but closed, GM Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay should sit down with quarterback Matthew Stafford and see if he would welcome a trade.
Now, trading Matthew Stafford would require a lot of moving parts. The 36-year-old is signed through 2026 with a base salary of $23 million for 2025 and an even larger sum of $26 million the following year, per OvertheCap.com.
Stafford’s recent injury history cannot be overlooked, either. Only so many teams would be interested in trading for an ageing quarterback whose production could fall off at any moment, but there’s one club that actually makes sense here.
That would be the QB-needy Las Vegas Raiders, who have struggled to replace Derek Carr since his release in 2023. Their $25 million free agent signing, Gardner Minshew II, was just benched in favor of inconsistent sophomore Aidan O’Connell.
Oh heck…here’s Staffords first touchdown as a #Ram https://t.co/1ha6uXEtxd pic.twitter.com/0MAkZG552b
— East Coast Rams Pod (@EastCoastRams) September 12, 2024
Mark Davis’ Raiders haven’t had a true top-10 signal-caller since Carr’s career year in 2016. Before that, you’d have to go back to Rich Gannon’s MVP-winning season in 2002, the year the Raiders last reached the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady just purchased a minority stake in the Raiders. If there’s one person who can sell Matthew Stafford on the idea of coming to Vegas for the final stretch of his career, it’s the seven-time Super Bowl champion.
For the Rams, trading Stafford puts them in a spot to bottom out and snag a top QB prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft like Georgia’s Carson Beck, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Quinn Ewers of Texas.
What Raiders Should Offer Rams For Matthew Stafford
Because the Raiders would be doing a financial favor for the Rams by taking on Stafford’s contract, GM Tom Telesco probably wouldn’t have to give up too much for the Super Bowl-winning QB.
The Raiders should offer a 2025 third-round pick, a 2026 fifth-rounder and Minshew to the Rams for Stafford. The latter could do wonders with Jakobi Meyers, Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer as his main weapons, while the Rams can use Minshew as a bridge QB before drafting their new signal-caller of the future.
