Did Matthew Stafford use the Raiders to leverage the Rams for more money?
If he did, he didn’t seem to get a better deal from the Rams, but according to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, Stafford’s decision to stay in Los Angeles had nothing to do with money.
“I have known Matthew Stafford a long time. That’s no secret on this podcast. I can tell you that Matthew Stafford is a lot of things. He’s not disingenuous and he’s not a manipulator nor a liar and he took less money to stay there,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“[Stafford] did not play the Rams. There was a rift in this relationship that was not a financial rift, but there was a rift in the relationship. I believe initially, without getting into detail, it was more of a rift from parts of the Rams to Matthew. The Raiders offered the most money. I can tell you, and this is not speculative, the Raiders offered him $100 million for two years,” Hondo continued.
“You always see players will say it’s not about the money, then they take the highest paid plays and people rip them. This was Matthew deciding to stay in California, even for less money, was what was best for his family if he wanted to continue to play football… He was genuinely interested in coming [to the Raiders] but when they sat down and talked, and the Rams were very forthright, and very humble, and he is by nature, I think it was just an opportunity where they were able to heal the relationship.”
In the end, it seems Stafford had issues with the Rams, but he never said exactly what they were.
His wife, Kelly, actually talked more in the offseason about the situation and in early February she definitely sounded like she was ready to leave Los Angeles.
“Right now, if the Rams decided that they wanted to trade him, or Matthew decided he didn’t want to play for the Rams, I’m good. I would move my family,” Kelly Stafford said on her podcast in early February. “Yeah, that might be tough. First month, hard. After that, turns out, I like my kids to learn how to be resilient. The ball’s really not in our court in that. But I value being respected and wanted over convenience. So it would be very convenient to stay. Very easy. But if someone doesn’t feel valued, then I’m like, let’s hit the road. Let’s go on an adventure.”
Down the road, Kelly will probably talk more on her podcast about what went into their decision to stay with the Rams, and ultimately, she might be the best one to get it from anyway.
“I think… his wife Kelly Stafford went on a podcast, she was a little upset about things,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur said on Just Win Podcast last week. “She kind of calls the shots from everything I’ve heard and so it’s going to be a lot of money difference… I think the Raiders were offering like two years, for $100 million and the Giants were offering even more.”
Despite the Stafford family’s decision to stay in Los Angeles, a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore suggested the Rams would have been willing to send their star quarterback to Las Vegas if the Raiders had made a better offer.
“[The] Raiders showed some discipline by not budging on holding onto pick No. 6. Things would look different right now had they been okay with moving that pick to get Stafford,” Bonsignore reported on X on Friday. “A two this year and next year’s one would have gotten it done. Everyone has their price. The Raiders were unwilling to go that far.”
In a slightly contradicting report, Tafur said last week he thought a second-round pick to the Rams might have been enough to make the trade happen.
If that were the case, it sounds like the Raiders’ best offer may have only involved a third-round pick in exchange for Stafford.
