The Los Angeles Rams shocked the football world on Saturday night when it was reported that they acquired Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions in exchange for Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-round pick.
The Rams made it clear over the last couple of weeks that they had lost confidence in Goff’s ability to get them back to the Super Bowl, and they acted immediately by unloading his contract with some picks to get what they feel is an upgrade at quarterback with Stafford.
While the deal cannot be officially completed until the start of the new league year in March, it appears the Rams are already discussing their future plans for their new quarterback.
According to Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic, while no contract extension was guaranteed with the trade, it appears the Rams will attempt to negotiate one with Stafford in order to spread out the distribution of his money for salary cap purposes:
Stafford has two years and $43 million remaining on his contract, which the Rams will inherit from the Lions, but people with knowledge of the Rams’ process believe the salary-cap-strained team will look to add at least a one-year extension, because that would better distribute the money. That also would align Stafford with those other core players through at least the 2023 season, when he would be 35 years old.
Considering the Rams will not only be taking on Stafford’s $43 million contract but will also have a dead cap hit of more than $22 million in 2021 for trading Goff, an extension would seem to be in their best interest.
Stafford also expressed a desire to play for the Rams before the trade went down, so it seems that an extension to play in L.A. longer would be something he is interested in as well.
Now that the Rams have figured out the quarterback situation, they feel that they are legit Super Bowl contenders for the next couple of years. With one of the best defenses in the NFL and some quality weapons on offense, L.A. has to be considered the favorites to win the NFC West at this time, even without the luxury of a first-round pick at their disposal.
Meanwhile, it seems that the Lions, under new general manager Brad Holmes who came from the Rams, are high on Goff’s potential and view him as their starter moving forward in Detroit.
