Matthew Stafford is a master at leading comebacks.
And, after much offseason uncertainty, the Rams’ star quarterback will be coming back to the team he led to a Super Bowl title and three playoff appearances in four years.
On Friday, the Rams announced that Stafford will be staying with the team after months of speculation about whether they would trade him.
Terms of the restructured deal were not disclosed.
As Stafford’s situation played out, the Rams considered other possible scenarios.
Veteran Jimmy Garoppolo was the backup last season, so he is familiar with coach Sean McVay’s system. But Garoppolo, 33, was not regarded as a long-range fix. Stetson Bennett, a fourth-round draft pick in 2023, is not considered a candidate to start.
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Sam Darnold, the former USC star who led the Minnesota Vikings to the playoffs, is among the pending free-agent quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers, a Super Bowl champion and four-time NFL most valuable player, also will be available. But at 41, he also would have been a short-term solution for a team eager to build on their success in the draft the last two seasons.
Stafford, 37, had two seasons left on the extension he signed in 2022 after leading the Rams to victory in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium. The deal reportedly included $120 million in guarantees, according to Overthecap.com.
But this was the second year in a row that the Rams and Stafford’s representatives were embroiled in negotiations to adjust Stafford’s deal, which was under-market compared to quarterback contracts signed in the past two years.
Last year, the impasse between the Rams and Stafford lasted until the first day of training camp, and ended only when the Rams agreed to push $5 million forward from 2025, according to Overthecap.com.
Henceforth, the Rams knew Stafford’s contract would be a year-to-year issue.
Stafford this season was due to earn $23 million in salary — with $4 million guaranteed — on a salary-cap number of $49.7 million.
After speaking with Stafford’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, the Rams gave Stafford permission to explore contract terms with other teams if he was traded. The permission was granted to gauge Stafford’s value on the open market and did not rule out a possible deal with the Rams.
So Stafford, who ranks in the top 10 all time in NFL passing yardage, completions and touchdowns, will continue his assault on the record book with the Rams.
The top pick in the 2009 draft by the Detroit Lions, Stafford has passed for 59,809 yards and 377 touchdowns, with 188 interceptions. He amassed 14,700 yards and 95 touchdowns, with 44 interceptions, during his first four seasons with the Rams.
Stafford came to Los Angeles after 12 seasons in Detroit, where he established himself as one of the league’s elite — and toughest — passers.
But the Lions made the playoffs only three times and never won a postseason game. After the 2020 season, Stafford asked the Lions to trade him.
McVay, fresh off a disappointing NFC divisional-round defeat by the Green Bay Packers, jumped at the opportunity to replace Jared Goff with Stafford. The Rams sent Goff, two-first-round draft picks and a third-round pick to the Lions for Stafford.
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The deal paid immediate dividends for the Rams.
Stafford passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a 12-5 record. He engineered playoff victories over the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers before capping the season by passing for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium.
In 2022, Stafford suffered a concussion and then a spinal bruise that forced him to miss the final seven games of what proved to be the worst Super Bowl hangover in league history.
In 2023, Stafford bounced back and passed for 24 touchdowns as the Rams rebounded from a 3-6 start to make the playoffs.
Last season, Stafford passed for 20 touchdowns, with eight interceptions, as the Rams won the NFC West and won a wild-card game before losing an NFC divisional-round game to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
