Heading into March, one of the biggest questions in the NFL surrounds how the Los Angeles Rams will handle their quarterback situation.
Will they retain Matthew Stafford on a new deal? Will they trade him for a massive haul? Or will they hope things work out without a big swing in either direction, allowing the veteran QB to play out his deal and leave in free agency?
While it’s hard to say, one man heavily involved in figuring out the situation is Sean McVay, who noted in an appearance on the Fitz & Whit podcast just how hard it is to handle the Rams’ short-term success without hurting their long-term future at the NFL’s most important position.
“There’s no discrepancy on us wanting him to continue to lead the way and be our quarterback. The interesting and the challenging dilemma and dynamics within this are, ‘Hey, how do you continuously as a head coach look at the short term and the long term and be able to figure out what does that really look like?’” McVay said via ESPN.
“There is no dispute — and let’s not get it twisted in regarding to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback. Now, there’s layers to it. You have to be able to say, ‘Hey, how do we continuously build? How do we support him? How do we make sure that he’s getting what is his worth relative to those things?’”
Now sure, even the best teams in the NFL think about their future, as even teams built to win-now hope not to be picking first overall a half decade later, but how does a team thread that needle? McVay admitted he and the Rams are trying to figure that out.
“There does have to be an element of understanding, well, what does that future look like without this freakin’ G that’s been our quarterback for the last four years?” McVay asked. “And there’s no wrong or right way to go about it, but I do think for us to be able to make the most educated decision in terms of the cash budget that we operate on, the draft comp that you would get in return, you just need to be able to have all the parameters to at least explore it. Don’t have to do anything in secret, want to make sure that we’re all abreast of the situation, even though the first goal in mind is to have you come back here as the quarterback.”
Could the Rams draft an interesting option on Day 2 and hope that he’s ready to go by the time Stafford’s career comes to an end? Sure thing, but until Stafford re-signs, the Rams would be wise to consider all available options, as at this point, they all should be on the table heading into free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft.
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