How Matthew Stafford alters the Rams NFL Draft Plans

The quarterback future is solidified

Quarterback Jared Goff is no longer the future of the Los Angeles Rams. That much was clear when he sat week 17 with a thumb injury and John Wolford started the game, performing well and at a suitable level. The main point that became very clear? Goff was holding this football team back, and it was not pretty.

Why couldn’t Goff handle the offense? I think that Rams head coach Sean McVay wanted Goff to be able to run the offense from the line of scrimmage. That’s not Goff’s forté. He’s very much a “tell me what to do and I will execute” type of quarterback. Some coaches prefer that.

McVay is not one of those coaches. He designs his offense to use a lot of pre-snap motion to tell his quarterback what the defense is doing. The quarterback can then, in turn, make adjustments at the line of scrimmage to attack what the defense is showing.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford will be 33 at the start of the 2021 season – in theory, that means that Stafford still has three to four good seasons left in him. He’s under contract for two more years, valued at $20M this season and $23M next season – still less than the Rams were paying Goff. Stafford also has the experience and the ability to command an offense from the line of scrimmage and will have more weapons around him than he’s ever had in his career.

Following the playoff loss, the Rams obviously needed to upgrade the quarterback position. Trading for Stafford was the perfect fit and now removes the need for a quarterback from their draft board. That’s not to say that the Rams won’t try and add someone to develop, maybe Jamie Newman?