With Matthew Stafford coming off another injury-riddled season, there were rumors that the Los Angeles Rams would look to move off him.
The Rams had a bloated cap sheet and needed to clear room in order to get under the NFL’s salary cap. Cutting or trading away Stafford could’ve aided in that effort, but the quarterback announced he would return and the organization welcomed him back with open arms.
In an appearance on ‘11 Personnel‘, Kevin Demoff set the record straight on the Stafford trade rumors:
“Those conversations frustrated me because I think it’s trying to inject narratives that aren’t there,” Demoff said. “I know there are reports that we tried to trade Matthew. We were not actively trying to trade Matthew. I know Les has rebuffed that before. It’s just not the case. I think if you wanted to be in the reality of the NFL, there are 10 teams this year, at least, that are going to have different quarterbacks. We were obviously aggressive in remaking our roster in March. It would be naive to think that people didn’t inquire about what was going to happen with the player who the year before won the Super Bowl. It’s different than whether people inquire, whether there are casual conversations.”
Demoff added that the team considers Stafford a part of their plans going forward but would’ve listened to offers if they were too good to pass up:
“He is a pillar, we value him highly,” he said of Stafford. “Now, again, if someone did come in offering a ridiculous trade package, I think you owe it to your organization to listen the same way you would anyone. I think Les said people called about nine players during the offseason. That’s grown probably since that time.”
Lastly, Demoff explained why the trade rumors didn’t make sense from Los Angeles’ perspective:
“We value Matthew highly. Sean made that clear to him in the offseason. Les did. I think everybody did,” Demoff said. “And look, when you hear the report, the part that frustrated me was this notion that we were trying to get away from the $59 million and that was the only way to do it through trade. That tells you that you didn’t have an understanding of the situation. Matthew’s dollars after 2022 were unguaranteed. We could’ve walked away this year, free and clear, for $0. No future money owed. So there was no need to restructure. If we wanted out of Matthew’s deal, we could’ve walked away. We didn’t have to trade him to relieve the $58.5 million. We could’ve just walked away. To me, that’s where there’s a fundamental understanding of what his deal was that drives the narrative, ‘Oh, we were desperately trying to get rid of that.’”
All in all, the Rams never seriously considered shipping out their starting quarterback and that’s good news as they’ll need him to get back to their winning ways when the 2023 season kicks off.
