As good as Matthew Stafford is playing quarterback, it turns out that’s his second-best talent.
That’s saying something, considering the Rams’ star quarterback is one of the greatest throwers of the football that ever laced up a pair of cleats. He’s a Super Bowl champion, a perennial MVP candidate coming off his first MVP award on his 37th trip around the sun, and the example young quarterbacks aspire to emulate.
Nevertheless, it all takes a back seat to his true gift.
When it comes to deal-making and ruthless negotiating, Stafford is right up there with JP Morgan.
He pulled off yet another art of the deal on Thursday, agreeing to his third contract extension with the Rams since arriving in Los Angeles in 2021. This one will pump an additional $55 million into his bank account, raising his earnings over the next two years to $105 million, assuming he hits the incentives written into the deal.
He will. Count on it.
That is on top of the $408 million he’s already earned over his illustrious career, including the $189,000,000 the Rams have already paid him.
How does he do it?
Well, first off, he’s arguably the best quarterback in the game. At the very least, he’s among the top three.
And since arriving in Los Angeles in 2021, he’s provided the Rams with a caliber of play that perennially puts them in Super Bowl contention.
Combined with the elite roster the Rams continually churn out and their lust for winning — which starts at the very top with owner Stan Kroenke — as determined and ruthless a negotiator and competitor as Stafford is, he rightfully and brilliantly feeds off the Rams’ desire to dominate everything and everyone.
By feigning his obvious desire to continue to play and dominate.
How many times over the last few years have we heard Stafford say he’ll have to regroup with his family to decide whether he wants to return for another year?
Or, like he did last season, by flirting with Raiders’ minority Tom Brady at an exclusive ski resort in Montana, creating the possibility that he would welcome a move to Las Vegas after the Rams permitted him to talk to other teams about the possibility of a trade during an impasse on negotiating a new contract.
There was league-wide speculation that Stafford was agreeable to playing with the Raiders, with whom Brady had recently joined as a minority owner and their de facto president of football operations.
The Raiders felt good about their position. They offered him a two-year contract for $100 million.
As it turns out, Stafford was beautifully playing his cards.
The result? Stafford turned what had been the $58 million he was owed between 2025 and 2026 into $84 million over that span.
Cha Ching.
Only to turn that into another $55 million in new money, and the real possibility of earning $105 million between this year and next year, in his latest extension.
By any measure, that is an elite negotiator.
But here is the thing. The Rams gladly keep paying him. As they should.
Stafford means everything to the Super Bowl window they have opened between the brilliant team building of general manager Les Snead and the coaching of Sean McVay.
None of that matters without an elite quarterback.
The Rams know that. It’s why they traded for him in the first place, and continue to keep paying him.
They are 46-28 with Stafford under center, and 7-3 in the playoffs. They have won a Super Bowl and been to multiple conference championship games.
But more importantly, Stafford knows that.
It’s why he keeps leaning into those needs, desires, and reality. It’s why he performs the yearly dance of deciding whether to keep playing or not.
He knows it doesn’t work without a great quarterback. Specifically, him.
He’s got the Rams over a barrel in that respect.
It’s one they gladly accept.
Show him the money?
You’re damn right.