Cowherd: Rams wanted Matthew Stafford to re-do deal and he refused
Cowherd: Rams wanted Matthew Stafford to re-do deal and he refused
L.A. was reportedly "frustrated" with Stafford for not budging on his contract
The Rams gave Stafford a four-year, $160 million contract in 2022 after winning the Super Bowl. The team traded Ramsey in March after they knew that it wouldn’t be possible to give him the guarantees that he wanted added to his deal, contract moves that the Miami Dolphins were willing and able to do at this time. L.A. has been almost completely out of the free agent market this year, lost an inordinate amount of free agents, cut players like Bobby Wagner, and only completed signing their rookie draft class as of Friday.
To be clear, the Rams did not ask to “restructure” Stafford’s contract. They wouldn’t even need to get his permission to do that. A restructure is pushing salary cap commitments into the future by turning base salary into bonus money. Even if they wanted to, Stafford’s deal creates no 2023 cap space because of a restructure. According to Cowherd, they asked Stafford to “re-do” his deal, which could mean a number of things including taking a pay cut.
Stafford has a relatively cheap $20 million salary cap hit in 2023 because of how his deal is structured, but his contract also makes it impossible to release him either this year or next year. Trading Stafford before the deadline, which Breer says is not impossible depending on the circumstances by then, would save a small amount of money now but eat into L.A.’s salary cap for 2024. Stafford’s salary cap hit goes up to $49.5 million next season and $50.5 million in 2025.