McVay - Rams want Stafford but trying to make educated decision - ESPN

The Los Angeles Rams' «first goal» is to have Matthew Stafford remain the team's starting quarterback, but the franchise is trying to balance short-term and long-term roster decisions by letting their quarterback gauge his value, coach Sean McVay said on the «Fitz & Whit» podcast.

«There's no discrepancy on us wanting him to continue to lead the way and be our quarterback,» McVay said on the podcast, hosted by former NFL players Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth (the latter of whom played for McVay on the Rams), that was released Tuesday. «The interesting and the challenging dilemma and dynamics within this are, 'Hey, how do you continuously as a head coach look at the short term and the long term and be able to figure out what does that really look like?'

»There is no dispute — and let's not get it twisted in regarding to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback. Now, there's layers to it. You have to be able to say, 'Hey, how do we continuously build? How do we support him? How do we make sure that he's getting what is his worth relative to those things?'"

The Rams have given Stafford's agent, Jimmy Sexton, permission to speak to other teams about his market value, McVay confirmed on the podcast. Stafford has two years left on his contract agreed to in 2022, with $4 million guaranteed in 2025 and none in 2026. He is set to earn $27 million this season, far below that of many other starting quarterbacks.

«And so, at the end of the day, we had something in mind, he had something in mind, and nobody was right or wrong,» McVay said. «And then, ultimately, you're saying there's a ton of interest, because this guy's an incredible player.»

McVay said on the podcast that the Rams, by letting Stafford's agent talk to other