After navigating some turbulence, the Los Angeles Rams successfully managed to bring veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford to the team for the 2025 season, after it became increasingly likely that Stafford would serve as the starting quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders.
However, the 37-year-old quarterback is playing on a year-to-year basis, and there’s no succession plan for the Rams as of now. The Rams do, however, have two first-round picks in 2026, meaning that if Stafford can give the Rams a season or two more after 2026, they’ll be able to draft a quarterback and let him develop behind the veteran.
Rams head coach Sean McVay is hopeful that Stafford will be able to give them just that.
“We have a chance with him every time he’s at the switch, and love working with him,” McVay said, according to Pro Football Talk. “And I think he can play as long as he wants, but fortunately, I’m hoping it’s a couple more years.”
“When you’re able to have real conversations with people you love and care about, you can go one of two ways. You can either get further apart, or you can get closer,” McVay continued.
“And there is no question in my mind that he and I are closer than ever. There’s a lot of appreciation; there’s a lot of gratitude that we were able to work through some of those things.
“To ultimately, I heard [General Manager] Les [Snead] say it, to renew the vows. And I think there is kind of a renewal of appreciation for the opportunity to continue to work together. It doesn’t go lost on me how fortunate I am to be able to work with somebody as special as he is, both mentally, physically, and more importantly what he means with how he moves as a man, and how he positively affects and influences his teammates and people he’s around.”
McVay also touched on how he thinks Stafford is feeling physically heading into his age-37 season.
“I think he came out of this season feeling really good physically. And one of the things that I think is a tremendous credit to him, you look at [those] playoff games that he’s played in with us, the four his first year where he goes 4-0, leads us to a Super Bowl, you go to the ’23 season, he did everything in his power to try to will us to a victory against an excellent Detroit football team in ’23. And then this past year, he balls against Minnesota, and he does his thing against Philadelphia.”
