Matthew Stafford took less money to stay with Rams

The Giants tried to trade for and pay Matthew Stafford, but he couldn’t leave Rams for New York

The New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders believed that the Los Angeles Rams were serious about trading Matthew Stafford if those teams could pay him more, but according to Rich Eisen there was no such number that could have caused Stafford to leave L.A. for New York.

Breaking news: Good players don’t want to play for the Giants.

Which makes you wonder, “What was all this for then?” and there’s probably no good answer to that, but at least the NFL news cycle got its clicks during a slow week of non-draft news.

Despite rumblings that the Rams weren’t keen on extending Stafford or giving him a raise at age 37, that the team would be open to trading him if the quarterback wanted to go somewhere else that could pay him more, it seems like not only did nothing happen but that Stafford took less money to stay with the Rams.

Couldn’t they have worked this out among themselves?

On The Rich Eisen Show on Monday, Rich Eisen said that he heard at the combine that both the Giants and Raiders were ready to go all-in for Stafford. But at the end of the day, Stafford couldn’t bring himself to leave the Rams for a team that went 3-14.

“Giants hit the number and they hit the number for Stafford, and they not only hit the number for Stafford and they hit the trade comp, too. I heard the Raiders were way in, too. They really made a run. I think at the end of the day, Stafford’s watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean, and it is the best spot for him (to win). Why would he start from scratch? I don’t want to get too deep into the woods with him and the Raiders…”

At some point, Eisen may have even said that Stafford took significantly less money to stay in the heavily-taxed state of California:

Nobody knows for sure yet what Stafford will be paid, but by all accounts the difference wasn’t that significant and might just take him up to around a $50 million average. Yet Sean McVay has made it clear that Stafford continues to be a year-to-year situation and that the team isn’t committing beyond 2025.

Yet Stafford still wanted to be a Ram and the team allegedly turned down the draft compensation that they wanted in order to keep the quarterback.

Well, why did they have the conversations then? If it wasn’t to get Stafford a gigantic raise, and it wasn’t to get draft picks, then what was the point?

Here’s what is logical:

Matthew Stafford wasn’t going to be traded for a first round pick.

The Giants and Raiders were probably ready to commit about the same amount that the Falcons committed to Kirk Cousins in 2024, which was $90 million over the first two years. That sounds like a lot, it is a lot, but it’s not much more than what the Rams could do.

The Rams wanted to see if maybe they could get the Raiders or Giants to give up their top-6 draft picks. That was never going to happen.

Stafford may have wanted to see if he could get Dak Prescott money. That was never going to happen.

They tested the waters and were left swimming in circles. At least he’ll be swimming in Malibu instead of the Jersey Shore.