One of the teams with some interest reported Detroit Lions flyhalf Matthew Stafford is the Los Angeles Rams. The dots between the two are pretty easy to connect.
New Lions GM Brad Holmes, as well as assistant GM Ray Agnew, worked for the Rams three weeks ago. Los Angeles needs a better quarterback than Jared Goff to have a better chance of winning in the top-heavy NFC, or Rams head coach Sean McVay and GM Les Snead seem to believe the outside.
If you find out the trade between the two teams, there are a lot of breaks in the lines that connect the points. The most important place is the current Rams quarterly and salary constraint situation with Goff.
Goff’s contract is a sample of an irresponsible hack. He has guaranteed money for the next two years that makes the Stafford deal – once the highest in the league – look like a change. Goff will cost more than $ 40 million in fully guaranteed salaries and bonuses in both 2021 and 2022.
There is not much the Rams have to offer outside of Goff. Los Angeles does not have a first round in 2021. The Jaguars own it because of the Jalen Ramsey trade, a move-for-the-fences move that has largely borne fruit for the Rams. As a playoff team, the Rams also pick later in each round. Their first choice in the NFL draft in 2021 comes first at No. 57.
They may have extra choices from the third round to trade once the compensatory choices come out, but that’s not the kind of return the Lions figure for Stafford gets from other suitors. If other teams offer a choice from the first round, as is largely expected, it is hard to see the new regime short-circuiting itself just to work with a well-known team.
The acquisition of Goff, who did lead the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance two short years ago, would at least temporarily solve the Lions QB problem traded by Stafford. But Brad Holmes and Co can almost certainly do better than awarding Stafford to the Rams.