Matthew Stafford’s huge 2024 cap hit puts him in interesting company

The Rams may be sending signals with their decisions on Matthew Stafford’s contract

Matthew Stafford played some of the best football of his decade and a half career down the stretch last season for the Los Angeles Rams. The veteran signal caller played an important part in a resurgent season for the rebuilding Rams and helped lead them to a playoff berth.

But the Rams have a way of making things interesting at quarterback, even just a few years after trading Jared Goff for Stafford. LA has a huge contractual decision coming up on their current franchise quarterback after this season, one that would fully guarantee his $32M salary in 2025. The team is also somewhat raising eyebrows by not fully tapping into their ability to open up cap space this off season by restructuring Stafford’s deal and kicking the credit card bill into future years. Sure, it’s possible that the front office could be waiting to pull this lever until an opportunity to trade for a star player arises and they may need to extend that individual or absorb a large cap hit. It could be nothing, but it’s at least a curious scenario.

The Athletic’s Robert Mays also pointed this out by showing the top five cap hits in the NFL on X and simply saying there’s a “lot to unpack here”. Yes, there is—and this puts Stafford in interesting company.

1 – Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns: $63.7M

2 – Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys: $55.5M

3 – Matthew Stafford, LA Rams: $49.5M

4 – Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals: $49.1M

5 – Daniel Jones, New York Giants: $47.8M

That’s not to say that these are the highest-paid signal callers in the NFL, they are just the players where their teams are somewhat non-committal on their future. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen had their contracts restructured to open up cap space for the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, respectively. But they are the faces of their franchise and it’s difficult to imagine them playing football elsewhere anytime soon.

It’s almost like this group of quarterbacks is sitting at the “if you were better, we’d have restructured your contract” lunch table—and the future of each with their current teams are in doubt all for different reasons.

For Watson, it’s the fact he needs to play better based on his pay. He also needs to stay healthy to make good on the contract he signed with the Browns after they acquired him via trade from the Houston Texans.

Prescott has all the leverage in the world over the Cowboys, and he’s playing in the last year of his contract. If Dallas plans on keeping Prescott around, they’ll also need to decide if there’s room in the budget for CeeDee Lamb or Micah Parsons. That’s not to say that it’s an easy decision to keep Dak, as his lack of success in the playoffs in recent years is concerning.

Stafford is the oldest player on the list and it’s not clear how long he can continue to perform at a high level for Los Angeles. He’s gutted out injuries over his long career and recently missed most of the 2022 season with concussions and a spinal cord contusion. Stafford stayed mostly healthy in 2023 but missed an important conference game against the Green Bay Packers with a thumb injury.

Murray and Jones are hoping to prove to their current teams that they can be the long-term answer at quarterback, though the Giants could certainly draft a long-term replacement for Jones this year. Both players have battled injuries in recent seasons, including season-ending knee injuries for each.

The Rams seem to be keeping their options open when it comes to the quarterback position and the future of Matthew Stafford.