Jordan Raanan of ESPN, citing multiple sources around the NFL, reports the Giants inquired about acquiring Rams QB Matthew Stafford ahead of last season’s trade deadline.
Raanan notes that New York’s response was more of a “check-in” with Los Angeles than a serious inquiry.
The Giants later met with Stafford’s representation at the NFL Combine in February. According to Raanan, New York attempted to negotiate a deal for Stafford over five weeks and was willing to offer him a salary “in the range of $50 million per season.”
In the end, Stafford elected against uprooting his family and wound up taking less than what the Giants were offering at two years, $84 million to stay with the Rams.
Raanan also reports that New York eventually turned their attention to possibly signing Aaron Rodgers and he even had a one-on-one conversation with HC Brian Daboll, but they pivoted to looking at Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston, and Joe Flacco.
The Giants wound up landing Wilson and Winston to deals while picking up first-round QB Jaxson Dart in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Stafford, 37, is a former first-round pick of the Lions, who took him with the No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia in 2009. He was in the final year of a five-year, $76.5 million contract when he and the Lions agreed to a five-year, $135 million extension back in 2017.
Stafford was involved in a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff and draft picks in 2021. He signed a four-year extension worth $160 million that included $135 million guaranteed a year later.
The Rams and Stafford later reworked that deal going into the 2024 season, moving money up from the back of the contract. Stafford was due $27 million and $31 million in the final two years of his deal when the two sides reworked his existing contract again in 2025.
In 2024, Stafford appeared in 16 games for the Rams and threw for 3,762 yards while completing 65.8 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
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