Matt Stafford Traded to Rams
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Yeah, no kidding. Sort of lost in all this; fans returning to stadiums!
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STAFFORD IS PINCHING HIMSELF
While we’re on the subject of things written in the stars, let’s take a look now at how Matthew Stafford’s offseason has gone.
Coming off a slog of a 5–11 season in Detroit, and with another organizational overhaul in the offing, Stafford decided, finally, to ask for a trade. The Lions were receptive. He and the team worked together. It got done, without incident, and Stafford wound up landing where he most wanted to go. And when the deal was actually agreed to? He just so happened to be at the same resort in Cabo as the head coach of the team trading for him, Sean McVay.
So he got to toast the trade with his new boss in Mexico.
“It was one of those deals where you’re kind of down there pinching yourself, like this was meant to be,” Stafford said over the phone Friday night. “Whether it was or it wasn’t, that’s kind of how it felt. It was a really cool experience, something I know Kelly and myself will never forget. It was really cool to be able to celebrate it with him and [McVay’s fiancé] Veronika. It was one of those things I’ll never forget.
“And hopefully it’s one of those things we can look back on after winning a bunch of games, and hopefully a couple championships, and say that was a pretty cool moment in time.”
Stafford’s fit with the Rams, as I see it, best comes to life with how the trade came together.
On the team side, McVay’s personal drive to land Stafford—who he’d identified as his target right after the Rams’ season ended at Lambeau in January—drove the process. And that was because in Stafford, McVay saw an ideal triggerman for his scheme, with the 33-year-old’s ability to process, his pocket movement, his play urgency, his toughness and his ability to throw off platform the reasons why. McVay felt strongly enough about it to sign off at the franchise’s highest level, with owner Stan Kroenke, on giving up a lot to get him.
As for Stafford’s end of it, the Lions’ quarterback spent time in January studying different offenses to see where he might fit in, and because he had a casual relationship with McVay through his wife—Kelly Stafford’s brother, Chad Hall, and McVay were both star high school quarterbacks in Atlanta, and knew each other fairly well from that time—the Rams were of interest. He’d always liked the scheme from afar, and the tape only backed up his feeling that it would work for him.
“He does a great job of mixing tempos, mixing personnels, mixing formations,” Stafford said. “If I was playing defense against the Rams, it’d be a lot to look at, a lot to see, a bunch of different formations and some similar formations that you run a bunch of different plays out of. There’s quite a few ways to attack a defense. In the NFL, everybody runs similar schemes, but how you build them and call them is important and something that separates the good ones from the great ones.”
And when he and McVay talked through it, Stafford also got a pretty good look at how he’d fit into the program there.
“That was great,” Stafford said. “I hadn’t really spent a whole bunch of time with him before, and I got a chance to talk to him a little bit, loved his passion, loved his energy, really liked the way he talked about the game. We had a bunch of battles, whether he was in Washington, or here in L.A. over the past years, getting to rehash some of those games was fun.
“I just think it was one of those things where our personalities clicked, and that was exciting for me as a quarterback, knowing that I’m gonna be working with a guy that’s calling the plays and building the offense as closely as I am at the quarterback position.”
So what’s next for Stafford? With uncertainty surrounding the state of the Rams’, and every teams’, offseason program, the quarterback’s been in touch with his new teammates like Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. And while they haven’t gone out and thrown yet, Stafford promised that there are plans in place to “get a little creative to get out there and get some work done.”
Until then, his goal is to build up relationships like he did over 12 years in Detroit, and not overdramatize his arrival in L.A.
“I’m a piece to the puzzle like everybody else is,” he said. “Am I excited to be on a team that has won a bunch of games and been to a Super Bowl recently? Hell yeah. Any athlete would love that opportunity, to get into a situation like that. I’m definitely excited by it. But I know what my role is going to be. My role is going to be to play at a high level, to get our team, our offense, in the end zone as much as possible, and help lead these guys.”
All of which is to say, yup, Stafford is pretty excited to get going.
But as we talked about how perfect all this is—you can throw the fact that his high school buddy, Clayton Kershaw, happens to also be a star athlete in his new professional home, and that he and Kelly already had a place a couple hours away in Orange County—there was also an appreciation for the city and the team he’s leaving. And a pretty clear feeling that he’s thankful for their role in this.
“I don’t want it to be lost how important the Lions’ role was in that situation and that whole process,” he said. “They were incredible to me. I went to them and talked to them and we hashed out a plan. I’m not a social media guy. This was not going to come out from me, that I was seeking this. They obviously were gonna do whatever was best for them. And we wanted to make sure that everybody in that situation was taken care of.
“And I do have a lot of respect for the Lions and the Ford family and everybody in that organization, so I wanted it to be done the right way. They obviously were great to me, had a bunch of respect for me, and we honored each other’s wishes, went about our business, and when it’s all said and done Southern California, for the L.A. Rams, to be able to be their quarterback is something that’s special to me.”
He then added, “That’s nothing against where I spent the first 12 years of my career in Detroit, because I’ll always love that place as well. But it is an exciting new opportunity for me, the family, everybody, we’re excited about it.”
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Just sucks because I loved when teams would sit down with said player at a PC and it felt more real.
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Richard Sherman loves Matthew Stafford's fit with Rams, predicts 5,000-yard season
Richard Sherman loves Matthew Stafford’s fit with the Rams and expects him to have a huge year in 2021.
theramswire.usatoday.com
Looks like even this piece of doo doo sees Stafford doing great things with us.
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If Frank Reich believes Matthew Stafford is due for 5000 yards this year. I am all in with Matty Stones! ~ @jrry32Richard Sherman loves Matthew Stafford's fit with Rams, predicts 5,000-yard season
Richard Sherman loves Matthew Stafford’s fit with the Rams and expects him to have a huge year in 2021.
Looks like even this piece of doo doo sees Stafford doing great things with us.
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