One of the teams with some reported interest who is negotiating for Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is the Los Angeles Rams. The dots between the two are very easy to connect.
Lions new 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 NFC, or at least Rams coach Sean McVay and GM Les Snead seem to have that belief.
Discovering an exchange between the two teams creates a series of breaks in the lines that connect these points. First is Rams’ current quarterback and the salary cap situation with Goff.
Goff’s contract is a monster of irresponsible success. He has guaranteed money for the next two years, which makes Stafford’s business – which was once the highest in the league – look like change. Goff costs more than $ 40 million in wages and bonuses fully guaranteed in 2021 and 2022.
There is not much that the Rams have to offer outside of Goff. Los Angeles did not have a choice in the first round in 2021. The Jaguars won it as a result of the Jalen Ramsey switch, a hitting move that paid off for the Rams. As a playoff team, Rams chooses later in each round as well. Your first choice in the 2021 draft of the NFL will not come until the No. 57 overall.
They could have extra choices in the third round to negotiate as soon as the compensatory choices are made public, but this is not the kind of return that Lions hope to get for Stafford from other suitors. If other teams are offering a choice in the first round, as is widely expected, it is difficult to see the new regime going short just to deal with a family team.
The acquisition of Goff, which led the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance two years ago, would at least temporarily resolve the Lions QB dilemma created by the Stafford deal. But Brad Holmes and Co. can almost certainly do better than handing Stafford over to the Rams.