
Matthew Stafford was so intent on staying with the Los Angeles Rams that he apparently turned down several big contract offers earlier this offseason.
Back in February, the Rams quarterback was looking for a contract with more guaranteed money, but he couldn’t come to an agreement with the team on what the new number should be. With the two sides at an impasse, the Rams decided to give Stafford permission to speak to other teams about a possible trade.
At the time, there were multiple teams believed to be interested in Stafford, including the Steelers, Browns, Raiders and Giants. Out of that group, the two teams that showed the most interest were apparently New York and Las Vegas. According to Sports Illustrated, the Giants and Raiders were so eager to land Stafford that both teams made him a contract offer worth at least $100 million over two years.
Since Stafford was still under contract with the Rams, the Giants or Raiders would have had to work out a trade to land him, but it’s very likely a deal would have gotten done if Stafford pushed for it. However, the 37-year-old quarterback ended up making the decision to stay in Los Angeles.
Although the Rams announced back in February that Stafford would be staying, it took more than two months for the terms of his restructured contract to come out. Under the revised deal, Stafford will be getting $84 million over the next two years. Of that total, he’ll be getting $44 million guaranteed money in 2025 with $4 million of that already paid out. Based on the new numbers, that means that Stafford left AT LEAST $16 million on the table to stay with the Rams. Also, the Raiders play in a state (Nevada) with no income tax, so he would have pocketed at least $20 million more with the Raiders than he’ll end up getting from the Rams.
It’s pretty clear that this decision didn’t come down to money. With Stafford on the backend of his career, it seems obvious he wanted to play with the team that gave him the best chance to win the Super Bowl and that’s definitely the Rams, who are coming off an NFC West title in 2024.
In the end, the Raiders found their quarterback by making a trade for Geno Smith. As for the Giants, they signed both Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston before trading up to add Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
This news was originally published on this post .
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