{"id":264376,"date":"2026-02-03T13:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=264376"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:51:30","slug":"sean-mcvay-shares-daunting-matthew-stafford-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/02\/03\/sean-mcvay-shares-daunting-matthew-stafford-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McVay Shares &#8220;Daunting&#8221; Matthew Stafford Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After earning a multi-year extension, Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay is holding his breath on a possible return for Matthew Stafford. According to reports, McVay is &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/rams-sean-mcvay-fingers-crossed-matthew-stafford-returns-oc-search-2026\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fingers crossed<\/a>&#8221; that Stafford returns to the team after putting up an MVP performance this 2025 regular season. Since signing a new deal, McVay would love to have his cornerstone player back as a Ram, as Stafford has one more year left on his current deal. It&#8217;s been dead silent from Stafford, but McVay is confident that the quarterback is just taking time away that he &#8220;deserves&#8221; and thinking about if he wants to continue playing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_262851\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-262851\" style=\"width: 983px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew Stafford, quarterback, Los Angeles Rams\" width=\"983\" height=\"655\" class=\" wp-image-262851\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28006167_168402708_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-262851\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan 10, 2026; Charlotte, NC, USA; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) passes the ball in the fourth quarter in an NFC Wild Card Round game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Sean McVay Shares &#8220;Daunting&#8221; Matthew Stafford Update<\/h2>\n<p>The good news is that McVay hasn&#8217;t set a timeline on Stafford and wants him to take the time he needs. However, the Rams should consider drafting a quarterback in this year&#8217;s draft to embrace the rebuild. They&#8217;re not getting Fernando Mendoza, but they have to get some stability in that quarterback room. Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett are waiting for an opportunity, but it wouldn&#8217;t be a bad thing to draft another potential starter.<\/p>\n<p>The Rams have the offense and system that can put the next man up in the best position to win. McVay has the brains, while they still have wide receivers, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/07\/13\/cooper-kupp-to-davante-adams-rams-pickup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Davante Adams<\/a> and Puka Nacua. It wouldn&#8217;t matter who would steer the ship of this offense, but the Rams may not make a deep run in the postseason next year if Stafford retires or joins another team on a one-year deal. It would be a shock if he leaves for a new team, but nobody should put it past any roster in need of a quarterback.<\/p>\n<h2>Teams May Reach Out For a Possible Trade<\/h2>\n<p>To no one&#8217;s surprise, there will be teams that could reach out to the Rams regarding a trade for Stafford. Plenty of NFL rosters need a stable quarterback at least for a year, such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/13\/head-coach-candidates-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-after-tomlin-resigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Steelers<\/a>, Panthers, Falcons and Saints. While the Rams would avoid trading Stafford, the veteran could request a release to play elsewhere if that&#8217;s what he wants.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that Stafford wants to retire once his contract is up, it shouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if Los Angeles grants Stafford one last wish, given that he&#8217;s won a Super Bowl during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/rams-aaron-donald-proves-he-s-built-for-the-moment-in-super-bowl-lvi-victory#:~:text=The%20third%20time%2C%20he%20smiled,was%20built%20for%20the%20moment.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Donald era<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Head Coach Sean McVay shared a teaser that could lead their quarterback to explore his options outside the Los Angeles Rams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":264377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,34,6431],"tags":[1039,7473,404,1465],"class_list":["post-264376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-rams","category-nfl-teams","tag-davante-adams","tag-los-angeles-rams-news","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-sean-mcvay"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264376"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264383,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264376\/revisions\/264383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}