The Los Angeles Rams are 0-2 and the most injured team in football. For the sake of their future, it might be time to say goodbye to veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The reasons continue to mount for the LA Rams to make this move and turn the page. It has nothing to do with Stafford himself; he's still among the best QBs in the NFL and may have a couple more years left.
But the Rams clearly loaded up a bit this offseason to try and make a run, and with how injured this team is already, there really is no digging out of this. It honestly just feels like a repeat of the 2022 NFL Season, the year after they won the Super Bowl.
There are mounting reasons for the Rams to just throw the towel in on this season, on the Stafford era, an build for the future. The amount of injuries they have is going to be enough to put a dagger in their season. Key players are set to miss weeks and weeks, and the Rams will just end up in too big of a hole to dig out of it.
Secondly, Matthew Stafford can still sling it, so he's not hit a wall and Father Time has not arrived just yet. His 2023 season was spectacular, and the Rams would not be able to trade him if he was declined. They'd be stuck with him until they had an out in his contract. Furthermore, the Rams do have a young and promising foundation on both sides of the ball.
Stafford is 36 years old and is not going to be an efficient passer long enough to be a part of that new generation of the Los Angeles Rams. What could benefit the team more is getting multiple draft picks back in a trade. This not only give them more draft capital for Les Snead to work with, but it may also help them potentially trade up in the 2025 NFL Draft, for example, to take a QB they have their eyes on.
When the LA Rams traded for Matthew Stafford after the 2020 NFL Season, it was to win the Super Bowl. They did that in year one, and that made everything worth it. Whatever they were able to squeeze out from the Stafford era is just icing on top.
It may seem extremely premature for me to say that the LA Rams should trade Matthew Stafford, but this is shaping up to be a five or six-win season, and you'll then have Stafford, who is always banged up, entering his age-37 season. The Rams should get a bit of a jump start here and consider a massive trade for their starting QB.
