Ah yes, the Los Angeles Rams are still headlining the NFL national media. If you don't see new speculation over the new team for wide receiver Cooper Kupp, then you are bound to run aground of guesses about the outcome of the Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Tired of the talk already. Hmmm, then you won't be pleased, my friends and readers. This narrative is just starting to heat up.
When it comes to the NFL off-season, there is a pattern to storylines that break. The first is any NFL rumors that involve name-recognizable players who have requested or who have been named as on the trade block. After those stories have run their course, the next wave of stories to break are the top NFL veteran free agents, and with which teams they might sign in the upcoming NFL Free Agency market.
After that, the firestorm of NFL mock drafts hits a crescendo, leaving all 32 NFL teams and their fansbases eager to learn who their teams select. Finally, it's the undrafted collegiate players and next wave of free agency signings that pique NFL fans interests. All of that carries the NFL fans to the doorstep of mini-camps, OTAs, and training camp. And the cycle repeats itself each year.
Unfortunately, for all Rams fans, the offense tandem of WR Cooper Kupp and QB Matthew Stafford, the offensive engines that drove the team to victory in Super Bowl LVI, currently find themselves at the eye of a hurricane of NFL rumors, speculations, and inuendos. Sure, you are fatigued about all of the talk. But it's important to stay versed in what may happen as that can sometimes lead to what does happen. And right now, one of sports media's most recognizable talking heads, Colin Cowherd, is weighing in on the LA Rams and the future status of veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford.
There are many areas that lack sufficient detail for any trade scenario that may play out in the Rams Stafford future. For openers, the Rams do not have sufficient depth at the quarterback position to warrant any trade of Stafford in 2025. Secondly, the Rams were oh-so-close to competing in Super Bowl LIX, and the projected loss of veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp plus the expiring contracts of Tutu Atwell, Demarcus Robinson, and Tyler Johnson is a tremendous setback to overcome.
Still, if the Rams need a bridge quarterback for a year or two, Chase Daniel is already linking veteran QB Aaron Rodgers to the Rams.
But NFL rumors linking QB Matthew Stafford to the New York Giants are not going away. On the contrary, they are multiplying with seemingly more and more reasons why it will happen.
Is Colin Cowherd a trusted source of LA Rams insider information? Unlikely. But he does have a huge national following that does mean that he cannot wildly speculate off the cuff without some pushback. So what does Cowherd have to say about the Rams and Stafford's current situation?
Cowherd suggests 2 veteran quarterbacks move in 2025
The precursor to any scenario of the LA Rams impasse with contract negotiations with QB Matthew Stafford is the need to find an immediate replacement who is capable of competing at a high level, able to pick right up in the Rams offense, and able to compete for 17 games in 2025, and hopefully 2026 as well. The Rams have some options.
But as with any speculation, the key to forging a believable SWAG (scientific wild a** guess) is to blend facts among the fiction. For the Rams, their ability to rejuvenate the reputation and careers of Baker Mayfield, Carson Wentz, and even Jimmy Garoppolo cannot be discarded. With the tough times of veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers in his tenure with the New York Jets, he is viewed by several NFL analysts as the next logical addition to the LA Rams roster.
But like the old adage, too many cooks in the kitchen, any scenario of the Rams signing free agent Aaron Rodgers only makes sense if the team has an opening at the starting quarterback position. And the Rams were not simply willy-nilly about the tarnished players who they signed to their roster. Sometimes, the matter was simply pressing need. More often than not, the front office had vetted the player and knew that he could win in the Rams offensive scheme.
So, let's park the Aaron Rodgers as a bridge veteran quarterback to the Rams on the side for now.
Stafford a trade target? NFL teams certainly hope so
Since trading for former Detroit Lions starting QB Matthew Stafford in 2021, the LA Rams have played four seasons. One injury-deveastanting season did not end in the playoffs. One season with a recast group of rookies made it to the playoffs and nearly defeated the Detroit Lions. One season with a restockied defense, the team made it to the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, only to be denied a final score in the Red Zone.
The Philadelphia Eagles won that game, and would go on to win Super Bowl LIX.
Then there is his first season with the team, a 2021 barn-burner that resulted in the LA Rams winning Super Bowl LVI. Plenty of other NFL teams tried the Rams' method of trading for a proven NFL quarterback, but none have come anywhere close to the team's level of success. The Denver Broncos pushed their chips into a trade for Seattle Seahawks' veteran quarterback Russell Wilson. Two years later the Broncos were happy to pay him to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The New York Jets followed a similar path and felt they landed a game-changer in former Green Bay Packers great quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Similar to Wilson's fate, Rodgers simply did not pan out. Now, he has a tarnished reputation and a bit of a radioactive presence in the pocket. But the Rams have a proven track record of restoring the reputations of NFL quarterbacks: Baker Mayfield (2022), Carson Wentz (2023), and Jimmy Garoppolo (2024).
So you had to know that someone with an audience, camera, and microphone would speculate that the Rams would be the logical team to sign Rodgers. And that someone is Colin Cowherd. Well, Colin Cowherd and a few more NFL analysts, it seems:
Connecting the dots is easy for anyone to do. You needn't have 'NFL inside sources,' to connect a trail of dots from projected free agent QB Aaron Rodgers to the Rams. But like any storyline in the offseason, there are reasons why stories are 'leaked,' to the public via NFL insiders and unnamed sources. Someone wants to script the narrative. So what can we glean from the oscillations of NFL rumors that seem to heat up and just as quickly cool off the likelihood of the Rams trading away Matthew Stafford?
The thing is: Does it make sense?
In the offseason, anything involving an NFL team, front office, coaching staff, or roster is considered fair game. This is the season for failed NFL franchises to score bigtime in the upcoming NFL Draft, Free Agency market, or trade market to return to relevance. And fans of struggling teams recharge their hope and optimism over the plethora of season-fixing scenarios that rain upon their parched earth like monsoons in the Sahara Desert.
So no, the audience is not using the scientific method to sniff out imposters versus bona find narratives that surface this time of year. Our bull dirt flags get tossed due to a much simpler method of discernment. If you don't like the scenario, it's bull dirt. That means that the message, the originator, and the messenger are all steeped in misinformation and are guilty of trying to erode the success of the team.
If you like the scenario, then you almost certainly look for rational reasons it not only could work out, but will. And then, you will defend that position as though you had uncovered buried treasure. The thing about any narrative at this time of season contains some splinters of truth and some splinters of fiction. So how can NFL fans sort the wheat from the chaff?
Why are fans hearing this, and why now?
As noted, the public only learns about something that someone wants them to know, and discuss. The fact is that Cleveland Browns All-Pro outside linebacker Myles Garrett wanted fans and 31 NFL teams to know that he wanted to be traded. You can bet (and win) a mortgage payment that the Browns front office did not want that information to escape to the public forum. Why? In negotiating with Garrett and representatives, the Browns lose a great deal of leverage in any surge of interest elsewhere.
Garrett and his agency knew this. They accidentally just drove up his trade price, with the goal of luring some NFL team to propose an offer that the Browns simply cannot refuse. Oops!?
When Cooper Kupp leaked the news that the Los Angeles Rams would be trading him 'immediately,' you can bet that act was not what the team wanted to deal with. The Rams front office, as many NFL teams, want to keep a lid on their personnel moves until that deal is done and contracts are signed. So why did Kupp act against his team's wishes?
Again, it's Kupp exerting what little leverage over the situation that he has to control the outcome. By putting his 'tradeable' status out to the public, Cooper Kupp affords a maximum of NFL teams that may be interested in trading for him involved in exploratory talks with the Rams. It also puts the onus on the team in the eyes of fans over the trade, which can be important in the long run. It also serves to put everyone on instant notice that a trade is likely.
That allows tens of thousands of NFL fans to lobby their teams to trade for Kupp. It gives the green light to all NFL insiders to explore teams that have interest in landing Kupp. It even afford draft analysts the opportunity to push prospects to the Rams as a rookie backfill to Kupp's role on the Rams roster.
But the Rams are not only newsworthy about Kupp. The Rams are getting plenty of mentions over the contract (re)negotiations with starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. Some have suggested that Stafford could be traded. So what can you tell what goes on in the negotiating room simply from what is getting leaked?
(1) - Frequent 'leaks,' is never a good sign
The LA Rams and Matthew Stafford are in the same lock-step negotiations that they had engaged in last season. While there were some mentions of the team and Stafford reaching an impasse, that never seemed to sully the contract progress. Even when the Rams had fallen to a record of 1-4 and had every reason to pull in the brick for the 2024 NFL season to pivot to 2025, the team did not falter. NFL rumors 'leaked,' over the team and Stafford (and Kupp for that matter) but it did not reach anything close to the low roar of 2025 NFL rumors.
NFL rumors happen every year. But the frequency and intensity of the LA Rams rumors in 2025 is elevated far higher than normal background chatter. The stage was set for plenty of buzz as soon as Kupp reported that he was on the trading block. It doesn't take someone to sit at the Stafford dinner table to recognize the adverse effects trading Kupp would have on Stafford's relationship with the Rams.
On paper, Kupp has struggled to stay on the football field since 2021. But Stafford is starting to show similar signs of wear and tear. Stafford knows that he likely has control over this final contract. But so do the Rams. What is the fair market value of Matthew Stafford, a 37-year-old quarterback whose production is waning?
Tough negotiations are needed to find that common ground in estimated value. As a result, both sides are letting some things slip to the public forum.
(2) - Kelly Stafford leveraged Matthew Stafford's position
When Kelly Stafford vented about the lack of respect shown to her husband Matthew Stafford, I struggled to accept that was all a rogue NFL player's wife going rogue on her weekly podcast. If simply to avoid marital complications and stress, that type of podcast had to be shared with her husband in some form or fashion before it aired. After all, the impact of a poorly timed or phrased podcast could cost the Stafford household millions. Even worse, it could put the Staffords back into a moving van to compete for some new NFL team.
Despite her false bravado about traveling to a new NFL team becoming an adventure, and how much she loves adventures, the truth of the matter is that of Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, and Matthew Stafford, only Stafford's trade resulted in a boost to the player's reputation and NFL Hall of Fame candidacy. So no, not all adventures in the NFL are created equal.
Here is the extract of Kelly Stafford's podcast:
But let's put the entire podcast up for you. After all, I don't want to misinterpret some nuances that you may decide has different, or less intense meaning. So here you go.
The context of her podcast is unmistakenly clear. She starts off stating that she loves living in Los Angeles, California. But she pivots quickly to scenarios where the Rams would trade Matthew Stafford or Stafford not wanting to return to play for the Rams. Her narrative carries a lot of hints/innuendo that her husband needs to feel valued and respected. If you need that translated, that means money, plain and simple.
She is expressing her feelings, which are not steeped in the regression of on-field production. Nor does she cite the return on investment of veterans that hinges from big payday contracts to statistical measures that all NFL players face annually.
Let's be incredibly clear. Rams HC Sean McVay loves Stafford. If you want to measure respect, it starts there. But the challenge of an offense that was the most expensive in 2024, but finished in the bottom third of the NFL in terms of generating points on the scoreboard is tangible evidence that changes on the offensive side of the football are overdue.
(3) - Latest 'rumors,' have air of Rams trying to squelch public chatter
For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. That is the third law established by the great scientist Isaac Newton, who laid the foundation of three laws of motion that have become cornerstones to exciting realms of scientific discovery. So what the heck are we doing talking about Newton's Laws of Motion when trying to decipher the true meaning of the Rams (lack of) success in sitting down with Matthew Stafford's agent to reestablish contractual terms that their quarterback will find acceptable?
For every 'leak,' that has gotten shared, there is another 'leak,' that seems to squelch the noise.
Once NFL rumors named Matthew Stafford as a player who could be obtained via a trade, NFL Insiders Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler weighed in, citing sources close to the situation, and claiming that Stafford is likely to return to the Rams in 2025. So what compelled the typically tight-lipped team from leaking information about contract negotiations that are at the most optimistic only now getting underway?
A report from NFL Insider Peter Schrager, who has a solid track record of being plugged into the Rams' inner workings, had just shared that he could foresee Stafford wearing another uniform in 2025. So who leaked that knowledge?
Negotiations between the LA Rams and Matthew Stafford are incredibly difficult and tedious. Not because I'm just spitballing an adversarial relationship between the two sides. I'm not. But this contract has opposite goals for the two sides. Stafford, recognizing that this could be his last NFL contract, wants to squeeze out every drop of guaranteed salary compensation possible. So what's the problem?
The Rams face a player who is old enough, battered enough, and wealthy enough to step away from the game without blinking. Keep in mind that Matthew Stafford needed time to consider his NFL future. How far is that step from actually retiring? Yes, the Rams can shovel millions of guaranteed money to Matthew Stafford, but what are their guarantees? Do the Rams get offsets if Stafford is injured, or opts for retirement? Are their incentive clauses in the contract to ensure that the team is getting what it will be paying for?
(4) - Rams are committed to get the 'right' deal done
Therein lies the rub. What is the right amount of compensation for Matthew Stafford for 2025 and 2026, or even beyond? Both sides have every right to engage in tough negotiations to ensure that their interests are reflected in contract language. So why is this negotiation likely to be quite challenging? For Stafford, he is already under contract. So his only leverage right now is to sit out under a contract meets his expectations, or threaten retirement.
For the LA Rams, the team has painted itself into a corner. In terms of contract (re)negotiations, Stafford's contract is the giant redwood that must be addressed first. Then, and only then, the team will have a firm understanding of it's available salary cap space to spend in free agency. Had the team depth at the quarterback position, the mattew would not be as urgent.
Right now, out of respect for Matthew Stafford, the team only has backup quarterback Stetson Bennett under contract for 2025. That poses a problem for a Rams roster that currently offers no Plan B option if Stafford holds out. And that is why these negotiations have so much riding on them.
I don't believe that there is anything underhanded at work here. I believe that both sides want to get a deal done, and done quickly. That would put all of this to rest. But sometimes good intentions simply don't materialize. I know personally that sometimes couples who divorce may enter property settlements with friendly attitudes and optimistic outlooks, but the negotiations quickly prove to be very taxing.
I hope that both sides get this figured out quickly. Along the way, both sides will have options to take a different path. In the big picture, both sides best option is to find middle ground here. The Rams roster has more needs to be addressed, and they will need to await the team's resolution with Stafford.
In the meantime, we all wait, and NFL Insiders will leak dribs and drabs of information to keep the storyline atop the NFL headlines. I get it that many Rams fans just want it all to stop. But I don't see that happening until Stafford signs a re-worked contract, here or elsewhere.
As always, thanks for reading.
