The future of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is rapidly rising to become the dominant question of the NFL offseason, and despite the layers of emotion, family considerations and legacy talk surrounding it, his retirement decision appears to hinge on one overriding factor.
The Los Angeles Rams quarterback just completed one of the most impressive late-career seasons in recent memory, taking his team to the brink of the Super Bowl and reasserting himself as a favorite for NFL MVP â an award that in his 17 seasons he has never won. Now, as Stafford weighs whether to return for an 18th campaign â and where that season might be played â teams across the NFL, including the Detroit Lions, the franchise that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2009, are watching closely as the financial realities of his next move come into focus.
Stafford Waffles on Decision
Stafford has not made a decision on whether he will retire â or, if he has, he has not made it public â and on a podcast this week he continued to hedge about which direction he may be leaning.
âItâll be a lot that goes into it. Itâs a physical, a mental and emotional decision, a personal and a family decision as well,â he said on the Letâs Go podcast Thursday. âSo, weâll figure all that kind of stuff out with some time.â
But one prominent columnist for the Detroit Free Press isnât buying it.
Almighty Dollar Will Decide Staffordâs Future: Columnist
âIâll cut through Staffordâs malarkey with this simple summation,â wrote columnist Carlos Monarrez on Sunday. âHis decision is all about money.â
Prior to this season, Stafford negotiated a massive raise from the Rams, upping the two-year value of his contract from $58 million to $84 million, according to a Free Press report.
That means that by retiring, Stafford would essentially be leaving about $40 million on the table. Instead, according to Monarrez, Staffordâs flirtation with retirement appears to be nothing more than a negotiating ploy to secure even more money for his age-38 season.
âThis year, Stafford likely wants another bump in pay. And make no mistake, he deserves it after leading the league in yards and touchdowns as he took his team to the brink of the Super Bowl,â the columnist wrote. âIt would be financial negligence by Staffordâs agent, Jimmy Sexton, to let him play for so little next season. If this leads to another negotiating impasse between Stafford and the Rams, then things could get interesting for the rest of the NFL.â
Stafford May Be on the Move â to Detroit?
According to the Free Press columnist, if Stafford cannot strong-arm the Rams into granting him another raise, he still will not want to leave that $40 million behind â but he may not want to play for Los Angeles either.
That means he could attempt to force a trade, just as he did prior to the 2025 season. One potential destination, at least according to Monarrez, would be the Detroit Lions.
âWouldnât it be poetic if, all these years after the Lions made one of the franchiseâs boldest moves by letting Stafford leave, they made an even bolder move by bringing him back?â he wrote.
Stafford led the Rams to only their second Super Bowl victory, and first as the Los Angeles Rams, in his first year with the team in 2021. That came after 12 seasons in Detroit, where the Lions never finished higher than second in the division, reached the postseason only three times and never won a playoff game.
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