The latest Matthew Stafford rumors are absolutely wild

We’re drawing closer to learning about Matthew Stafford’s future, and an answer could come as soon as this week.

The Los Angeles Rams and Stafford have been at an impasse over his contract, with the QB wanting money in line with top quarterbacks around the NFL, while Los Angeles has been hesitant to meet his demands. This has led the Rams to allow Stafford to talk to other teams and assess his market value. Now there are rumors of what that figure is, and it’s staggering.

Meanwhile the Rams have a figure of their own:

The decision seemingly rests with Stafford. Does he want to make slightly less money and continue with the Rams, where they’re likely to make another playoff push or two — or is the additional money worth closing out his career on the Raiders or Giants? The latter would mean accepting mediocrity, because even with Stafford neither Las Vegas, nor New York will be a good team.

It’s here we get to the rub of all this. Are the motivations for the Raiders or Giants the right ones? Is the best football decision for either team to trade for a 37-year-old Matthew Stafford and make him one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL?

Unquestionably, the answer is “no.” These are two horrible organizations looking to make buzz over sensibly building a team. The Raiders are in dire need of turning the corner and showing improvement, limping to a 36-48 record since moving to Las Vegas and leaving fans weary. At least with the Raiders you can say there’s solid talent on both sides of the ball and point to quarterback being a serious problem for them — even if their only offensive weapon is Brock Bowers.

It’s not a good justification, but it’s at least mildly defensible.

The Giants are in a very different spot. This team is atrocious, and seemingly the major motivation behind making a move for Stafford is to save the jobs of GM Joe Shoen and coach Brian Daboll. It’s transparently obvious that the only goal is to get above .500 in 2025 and extend their time on the team. To make matters worse, it’s also the same kind of questionable decision making by the same questionable brain trust that led to Daniel Jones receiving a massive extension, and making Brian Burns one of the highest-paid defensive players in the league after trading for him. Jones flamed out and was cut. Burns was fine, but had nothing close to the production you want out of a player eating so much of the cap.

Both the Raiders and Giants want to fool people into thinking they’re “a quarterback away.” They are not. With or without Stafford they’ll be middling at best, and it’s for this reason that their ludicrous interest in a trade is nonsensical. There’s a reason bad team stay bad without change at the top, and we’re seeing it unfold in real time.