The future status of quarterback Matt Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams appears to be uncertain, and the Pittsburgh Steelers have been floated as a potential landing spot.
The Rams and Stafford are expected to revisit his contract this season, after a 2024 renegotiation removed all guaranteed money from each of the final two seasons in 2025 and 2026.
It's unclear how long the 37-year-old wants to keep playing, and how long the Rams will want to continue to pay him top dollar on the quarterback market. He's scheduled to make $58 million over the next two seasons.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated suggested on Tuesday that the Steelers and New York Giants are teams that will monitor the situation with Stafford, and could be interested if a trade materializes.
Breer isn't the first to make the Stafford to Pittsburgh connection. ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said the same last week on NFL live.
"Honestly, if I were the Giants, if I were the Steelers, if I were a lot of teams that would be my number one call. Try to see kind of what the plan is for Matthew Stafford ," Orlovsky said.
The first overall pick out of Georgia in the 2009 NFL Draft, Stafford was traded from the Detroit Lions to the Rams in 2021. He lead L.A. to the Super Bowl in his first season.
Despite his advanced age, Stafford has not slowed down late in his carer. He posted a 93.7 quarterback rating in 2024 — well above his career average of 91.2 — and his adjusted net yards per attempt stood at 6.59, again above his career average of 6.41.
Of course, any talk of trading Stafford brings into question how much of his success has been due to playing in the offensive scheme of Rams head coach Sean McVay versus how much was due to Stafford's on-field play.
McVay is considered one of the league's top offensive minds and his coaching tree includes a half dozen current and former NFL head coaches.
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