The Raiders are expected to be aggressive in their search for a quarterback in the offseason and the veteran QB getting a lot of attention in the last 24 hours, at least in terms of trade rumors, is Matthew Stafford.
It was reported on Friday that the Rams have given Stafford permission to talk to teams about a potential trade and even though the popular messaging around the Stafford situation is that he and the Rams want to stay together in 2025, it’s starting to feel like the Rams aren’t excited about making another financial commitment to him.
For weeks, the Rams have been working backchannels in search of Stafford’s potential replacement and that process started well before the Jets announced they would be releasing Aaron Rodgers.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has said he expects Rodgers to have interest in the Rams and its starting to feel like ‘Plan A’ for the Rams might not involve Stafford.
Connecting the dots a little more, the Rams and Stafford seem to be moving towards a divorce and the Raiders could soon have another quarterback option on the table.
Just two days after the news of Stafford’s potential availability, a host of beat writers covering the Raiders have all but confirmed the Rams will have an interested trade partner in Las Vegas.
“Sam Darnold likely is the best free-agent QB available, but there will be other veterans for the new regime of Tom Brady, Pete Carroll and John Spytek to consider,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur reported on Sunday. “Kirk Cousins? Meh. The name to watch is Matthew Stafford if the Rams trade him.”
According to Vinny Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Raiders would be in the mix for Stafford if he becomes available (which he seems to be already) and the Rams initial asking price will be a first-round pick and more. Bonsignore hinted that a second-round pick might be the more realistic price teams would be willing to pay.
For those who don’t know, Bonsignore has been a reliable source on the Rams since his days covering the team prior to joining the beat in Las Vegas. When he leaks the asking price for Stafford, he almost certainly isn’t guessing.
And lastly, there’s one more detail worth noting on the Stafford rumors.
The third local writer that has been talking about Stafford potentially joining the Raiders is Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, who has familiarity with the Rams’ quarterback from their time together in Detroit. Carpenter has talked on his daily podcast about knowing Stafford and it would make sense that if Stafford wasn’t interested in being traded to the Raiders, Carpenter would probably know.
With that in mind, Carpenter has also talked about the possibility of Stafford going to the Raiders and that might be an indication that Stafford wouldn’t veto a trade to Las Vegas.
Stafford may not have a trade clause in his contract, but with the size of his contract, he has a lot of leverage on where he goes if the Rams decide to trade him. No team will be willing to take on his contract if they don’t have assurances that he wants to play for them.
Obviously, there is still a lot of uncertainty around Stafford’s future, but it seems like the situation between Stafford and the Rams is trending towards a divorce. And based on reports this weekend, it sounds like the Raiders are going to be one of the teams at the front of the line to pull off a trade for him.
One way or another, answers are coming soon.
x: @raidersbeat
