LA Rams roster: Matthew Stafford will be back, but will the big guy?

With the news of LA Rams head coach Sean McVay pondering his future, the obvious fallout for the Rams roster is to connect the dots to other key players who are at that point in their careers when walking away from the game is a real option. As we know, the LA Rams structured contracts after winning Super Bowl LVI so that the team would have starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Cooper Kupp, and defensive lineman Aaron Donald, all running on contracts that expire several years into the future.

But that presumed that head coach Sean McVay would be at the helm.

Instead, that is not something anyone can confirm right now.  That is a huge handicap for the team. Not only does that create murky darkness over the future of the team, but it creates a host of uncertainty for everyone on the Rams roster.  Well, the good news is, the Rams starting quarterback Matthew Stafford will be back.

That’s step one to restoring this team to an NFL Playoff caliber team:

And, if I can be so bold, a very big and important step.

Stafford defines LA Rams’ offensive priorities

With Stafford now a certainty under center, the entire Rams offense instantly begins to congeal regardless of who is the head coach. That is due to the fact that Stafford is a pocket-passer, a quarterback who loves to diagnose and pick apart NFL defenses.

With Stafford under center, you can almost guarantee that this LA Rams offense will find a way to put points on the scoreboard. And with Stafford back, the LA Rams’ offseason strategy has got to be protecting him on pass plays. Whether or not the LA Rams follow through with that priority, on offense the Rams have to invest in a franchise offensive left tackle at a minimum.

The Rams now need to have some commitment or assurance that Aaron Donald will return, come hell or high water.  If the team can get Donald nailed down to return in 2023, then this offseason becomes a lot less complicated.