Rams’ Matthew Stafford stays home: Sam Darnold, Titans among winners

INDIANAPOLIS – The NFL’s annual game of quarterback musical chairs commenced Friday … with the Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford deciding to remain seated.

The reigning NFC West champions put all speculation about their QB1’s future to rest by revealing “HE’S BACK” on X. According to multiple reports, Stafford also agreed to a restructured contract. He was set to make $27 million in 2025 (only $4 million of it guaranteed), the penultimate year of a deal that was well below market value for the league’s elite passers.

But, for the second consecutive offseason, it appears the Rams have – temporarily at the very least – allayed any of Stafford’s financial concerns and should again move forward as a legitimate threat to reach Super Bowl 60.

As for the rest of the league? Plenty of winners and losers to be found:

WINNERS

Stafford and the Rams

On the surface, it never seemed to make much sense to fix what certainly didn’t seem to be broken – even as the team gave its 37-year-old quarterback permission to assess his value on the market at a time when extending his career seems to have become something of a Favre-ian revisit on an annual basis. Overall, Stafford (the only quarterback to bring the Rams a Lombardi Trophy when the franchise has been based in LA) didn’t play as well in 2024 as he did in ’23 but reserved some of his strongest performances for the postseason. He passed for a season-high 324 yards in the team’s divisional round loss to Philadelphia and nearly led a late-game comeback at Lincoln Financial Field in what was easily the eventual champion Eagles’ toughest test in an otherwise dominant Super Bowl run.

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With Stafford remaining in the fold – and assuming GM Les Snead didn’t use an inordinate chunk of his salary cap space to retain the 16-year veteran – the Rams, who have only missed the playoffs once during his four-year tenure since arriving via trade from the Detroit Lions, should once again be among the NFC’s primary contenders. And that’s good news for Snead, Sean McVay, Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, Jared Verse and anyone else affiliated with what has become one of the league’s steadiest operations.

Sam Darnold

Yes, yes, those last two games of the peripatetic passer’s best NFL season were unsightly. But moving forward, a 27-year-old coming off a Pro Bowl breakout with the Minnesota Vikings – Darnold’s 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns through the air in 2024 were easily NFL personal bests – might actually command a multi-year contract worth in the neighborhood of $40 million annually after resuscitating his career so impressively.

Tennessee Titans

Purveyors of the No. 1 pick of the 2025 draft, it might have just become a little more valuable … if the Titans are, in fact, a little more interested in ‘generational’ talent and accelerating their rebuild rather than gambling on a passer in what seems to be one of the weaker drafts at the position in recent years.

Aaron Rodgers

With Stafford no longer available, the soon-to-be New York Jets castoff might actually become the top established veteran passer available, Darnold notwithstanding, in a market with so many barren shelves. Rodgers would obviously come with his unique set of luggage, but then, too, so do Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in their own ways. As for what occurs between the lines, a healthier Rodgers played much better than Wilson down the stretch in 2024.

WINNERS AND LOSERS?

2025 NFL draft passers

It happens every year – young passers who aren’t ready to be franchise quarterbacks get pushed up the draft board by virtue of their high-profile position and the perpetual need to fill several of those jobs at the NFL level. But with Stafford no longer in play, the market’s ravenous demand seems bound to quickly consume its light supply. From one perspective, that might not ultimately be great for the likes Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward of Miami (Fla.) or even Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. However in the short term, they’re likely to draw even stronger consideration from clubs such as the Titans (maybe), Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, Jets and others … for better (at least financially based on draft slotting) and/or worse (based on many of these teams’ abysmal records at developing franchise passers).

LOSERS

Aaron Rodgers

If he was hoping Stafford might pull up his stakes and that he could be based in California, his home state, for the first time since he was the triggerman for the Cal Bears in college – while playing for a bona fide contender during a season in which Rodgers will turn 42 – welp. And with the San Francisco 49ers working on an extension for Brock Purdy, it’s appearing increasingly likely that Rodgers, a four-time league MVP, will have to choose among teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants or even the Titans … if he even comes back at all for a 21st NFL season.

New York Giants

They were heavily linked to Stafford in recent days as HC Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen seek a quick turnaround in what’s likely to be a prove-it-or-lose-it season for the club’s current regime. Now the Giants will likely be weighing options like Darnold, Rodgers or Wilson if they opt for a quick fix, or draft prospects such as Ward or Sanders, though a rookie might not provide a quick enough fix.

Tom Brady

Plenty of rumors and conjecture about how heavily the Raiders’ minority owner was recruiting Stafford – so much rumor and conjecture, that high-profile members of the NFL’s media corps were nearly coming to blows at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. Here’s what we do know: The Silver and Black came up snake eyes on Stafford and, aside from the presence of Brady and new coach Pete Carroll – for whatever they’re worth to players considering a move to Sin City – Las Vegas still decidedly appears to be well back of the pack in an otherwise loaded (and otherwise improving) AFC West.

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