The fate of 4 quarterbacks hang in the balance of 1 Wild Card Round game

There is always a story inside a story, and that is true for the Los Angeles Rams as they prepare to face the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs. Of course, the same can be said of every team competing in the postseason. There is the main storyline of what the team will do in the game. But for each game, there remains the underlying current of the Rams roster. One of the biggest questions facing the team in the upcoming offseason is how to address the quarterback position.

If you simply examine the Rams roster, you will not that veteran backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's contract expires at the end of the 2024 NFL season. But if you focus on contracts, you will miss nearly everything that makes the the offseason both complex and entangled in terms of reinforcing the quarterback position for years to come.

After all, the team has a lot to unpack over the quarterback position this offseason.

Is there some line in the sand drawn that will force the team to act as soon as the season is over? That is extremely unlikely. But there is the matter of building a case on evidence. Objectively, it is simply a matter of standing back and letting the chips fall where they may. And that can be an effective strategy in dealing with the performances and production of players in real time. Still, the team has had a continuous onslaught of mitigating circumstances all season long. So how can coaches and personnel executives sort through the conflicting bits of evidence to find the real truth to the matter? Is there even one real truth?

That is a great question, and we will not know the answer for many days, if not weeks. There is still plenty of football to be played. So there is no logic to drawing conclusions on partial data. Yet, there is a certain need of scrutiny about the team, about specific players, that warrants close vigilance. Do the Rams have one more Super Bowl run in them? Has the team constructed the Rams roster to seamlessly hand off the baton from Matthew Stafford to some successor in the future? Or is the team still banking on being all-in today, and leaving the solution to solving the team's next generation quarterback for the 2025 offseason?

If 2025 is the point in time for such a difficult determination, then what goes into that decision? It's a complex conundrum that the team has already begun to address as recently as the 2023 NFL Draft. So let's step back and consider the quarterbacks who the Rams' performance in the Wild Card Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs will impact:

IV: Rams QB Stetson Bennett

It's tough to envision the Los Angeles Rams play against the Minnesota Vikings might impact the future of young backup quarterback Stetson Bennett. Still, he is on the team and fills a vital role as backup quarterback. More importantly, he is the only other quarterback besides venerable starting quarterback Matthew Stafford who is under contract for 2025.

That ain't nothing.

The Rams dabbled at adding former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett in Round 4 of the 2023 NFL Draft with the 128th overall pick. That was sooner than some draft analysts expected to hear his name, a fact that set the stage to turn against him when he stepped away from football later that season. He returned to the team in 2024 with a fresh outlook and renewed passion for the game.

Despite missing all of 2023, Bennett looked the part of a future NFL quarterback as he started and completed two preseason games for the Rams. He completed 41 of 69 passes for 437 yards, two touchdowns, and five interceptions. Despite the tendency to throw multiple interceptions, Bennett remained resolute in the pocket, engineering two come-from-behind victories in his only two preseason appearances.

To many Rams fans, out of sight means out of mind, and little to no thought has been given to the guy who sat on the bench, or was declared inactive on game day. For those fans who do think of Bennett, some simply cling to a young quarterback just returning to the NFL who threw five interceptions in preseason. That was enough to cement their opinion of the guy to categorize him as not having what it takes to lead the team.

And yet, he is still on the roster, and despite the lack of positive news or starts, continues to grow and develop with his teammates for the team. Is he ready for a large role in 2025? Probably not. But what he does add to the Rams roster is that safeguard that will allow the front office to weigh a wide variety of alternatives. With Bennett in the quarterback room, the Rams can view the 2025 NFL Draft as an onramp to select a future quarterback, knowing that any prospect chosen will have immediate competition to earn playing time behind veteran Stafford. And that can make all the difference in the world.

III: Vikings QB Sam Darnold

The Minnesota Vikings have their own quarterback quagmire to sort through this offseason. Their one and only quarterback under contract for the 2025 NFL season is rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who is rehabbing a torn ACL. All season long, the case for the team to re-sign veteran quarterback Sam Darnold has grown and grown. In fact, some NFL analysts have even gone so far as to suggest that Darnold had played so well all season long that he played himself out of the market range of the Vikings to extend him to a fair market value contract.

Some NFL analysts have even proposed placing a franchise tag on Darnold for a one-year contract, trading him away, and signing a veteran free agent quarterback like former Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold laid an egg in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions. In that game, Darnold only completed 18 of 41 passes for 166 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions. That instantly changed the narrative of 'Can the Vikings afford to extend Sam Darnold?' overnight to much different question: 'Should the Vikings extend Sam Darnold?'

And one of the Minnesota Vikings beat reporters, Charley Walters of Pioneer Press, doesn't think that the Vikings will extend Darnold if he has a bad game against the Rams. And Walters is typically plugged into the sentiment of the Vikings coaches and front office:

So while the Rams players and coaches feel the pressure to perform well for the Los Angeles community, Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold faces a different type of pressure. He is under pressure not to screw up again. That often results in a tough game for any NFL player.

Against the Rams in Week 8, Darnold completed 18 of 25 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked three times in the game for a loss of 28 yards. The Vikings lost that game by 10 points.

Darnold has played well all season long. But he played one of his worst games of the season in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions. Even knowing that it was not a win-or-go-home setting, he simply did not show up in a positive light in the game that followed. And he has to get right back on the saddle to face the Rams in the Wild Card Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs. He is under far more pressure in this game than many realize. That could make this a difficult game for Darnold.

II: Rams QB Jimmy Garoppolo

A long-time foe of the Los Angeles Rams, veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a hit to his reputation after signing on with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023. Despite competing in games that ended with a record of 4-3, Garoppolo's role in the Raiders 8-9 season was a huge disappointment for a team that felt they had everything in place for a postseason appearance.

Garoppolo was benched in favor of young QB Aidan O'Connell, a Round 4 rookie from the 2023 NFL Draft. And after serving as a backup on a team that presumed he would serve as the season-long starter, he knew that he would need to repair his reputation to create renewed interest in his quarterbacking in the NFL. So he naturally turned to the LA Rams.

The initial question asked by Rams fans, how would the team manage his suspension over the first two games of the regular season? Very carefully, it seemed.

The Rams were careful about how the team used veteran backup Jimmy Garoppolo throughout OTAs, mini-camp, training camp, and the preseason. Despite facing a two-game suspension, the team treated Jimmy G. like every other veteran with a presumed rotational role on the Rams roster, and held him out of all preseason games.

Garoppolo was tasked with running the Rams scouting team at practices this season, and earned praise on more than one occasion for how thoroughly he prepared the defense for the next opponent on the schedule. Garoppolo is a wily veteran, a competitive NFL quarterback who has competed in the NFL Playoffs and in a Super Bowl.

Does he still have it? In a Week 18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks playing with backups, Jimmy Garoppolo completed 27 of 41 passes for 334 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and was sacked three times. His performance with the junior varsity squad was the highest passing yards total by the team all season long.

Nobody wants to see Jimmy Garoppolo play in the postseason, for obvious reasons. But he proved a mastery of this offense in just one game, and has made a compelling case to be extended by the Rams.

I: Rams QB Matthew Stafford

This has not been an ideal season for veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. That is not to say that the Rams front office should be ready to put him out to pasture. Simply stated, his numbers have eroded this season to the point where the team needs to have a firm succession plan in place for the inevitable.

In 16 games in 2024, Stafford threw for fewer yards and fewer touchdowns than 2023. And he only played 15 games last season. His 235.1 yards per game clocks in as his 14th-best season out of 17 NFL seasons. His 20 touchdown passes comes in as the 13th-best of his 17 seasons, and that includes injury shortened seasons as well.

Thanfully, not all is gloom and doom for the LA Rams veteran quarterback in 2024. When the Rams needed the offense to step up against elite opponents, Stafford took it up a notch. He led the Rams offense to score 30 points against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8. And he led the team to put up 44 points against the Buffalo Bills in Week 14. As far as games that had the feel of the NFL Playoffs, those two games certainly qualify.

Stafford is the type of players who never wilts under the bright lights. In fact, the broader the stage and the brighter the lights, the better the performance from Matthew Stafford. And he is coming off a vital BYE week in Week 18, along with many offensive starters, to be rested and refreshed for the Wild Card Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs.

Will this be Stafford's last hurrah with the team?

Well, that is a huge question mark for the Rams right now. The team agreed to pull guaranteed money into 2024 to satisfy Stafford's contractual demands. But that simply delayed the inevitable. Right now, Stafford is under contract through 2026. But will the team renegotiate a contract to ensure more guaranteed salary with a soon-to-be 37 year old quarterback? That's a huge matter, and one that could easily be significantly impacted by how well Stafford performs in the 2025 NFL Playoffs.

The LA Rams continue to pursue NFL Playoff victories, and it's clear that Matthew Stafford gives the team the best chance of achieving those goals. But if circumstances change, well that opens up the discussion to an entirely new set of strategies for 2025.

As always, thanks for reading.

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