Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay said that “the first goal in mind” for the team is to have quarterback Matthew Stafford return to LA as the organization’s starting QB for the 2025-26 season.
“When you talk about the elephant in the room, these are the things that are really challenging. Because there’s no discrepancy on us wanting him to continue to lead the way and be our quarterback,” McVay said on an episode of the Fitz & Whit podcast. “The interesting and the challenging dilemma and dynamics within this are, hey, how do you continuously – as a head coach – look at the short-term and the long-term and be able to figure out what does that really look like?”
The Rams’ “first goal” is to have Matthew Stafford remain their starting quarterback, but the franchise is trying to balance short-term and long-term roster decisions by letting their QB gauge his value, coach Sean McVay said on the “Fitz & Whit” podcast.https://t.co/39Y6SNfTJq
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 26, 2025
“There is no dispute, and let’s not get it twisted in regards to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback,” he continued. “Now, there’s layers to it. You have to be able to say, hey, how do we continuously build? How do we support him? How do we make sure that he’s getting what is his worth relative to those things? So, at the end of the day, we had something in mind, he had something in mind, and nobody was right or wrong. And then, ultimately, you’re saying there’s a ton of interest because this guy is an incredible player.”
According to a February 22nd report from the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport, the Rams gave Stafford and his agent permission to talk to other teams. However, this was “not a trade request,” explained Rapoport. Rather, it is a way for Stafford and his agent to “gauge the value” of the 37-year-old quarterback.
“There does have to be an element of understanding, well, what does that future look like without this freakin’ G who’s been our quarterback for the last four years?” McVay said. “And there’s no wrong or right way to go about it, but I do think for us to be able to make the most educated decision in terms of the cash budget that we operate on, the draft comp that you would get in return, you just need to be able to have all the parameters to at least explore it. Don’t have to do anything in secret, want to make sure that we’re all abreast of the situation, even though the first goal in mind is to have you come back here as the quarterback… These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, and that’s kind of the challenging part of it, but love this guy, and he’s been incredible for us.”
