Matthew Stafford Likely Seeking Raise In 2026

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport mentions that the Rams and QB Matthew Stafford will likely engage in contract talks yet again this coming offseason. 

Rapoport points out Stafford is due $40 million this upcoming season and he’d be surprised if he played for that number. 

At the NFL Honors awards show where he was voted MVP after a stellar season, Stafford announced he was coming back for another season in 2026, which was expected but not official until then. 

He’s got a fair amount of leverage to earn a raise as the Rams seek to win another Super Bowl in the little time they have left with him, more than he had last year when he flirted with a trade to another team. 

Ultimately the two sides are the best fit for each other, and as long as Stafford feels he has a contract that’s respectful of his stature and accomplishments, this should be worked out more smoothly than the last couple of years. 

Stafford, 37, is a former first-round pick of the Lions, who took him with the No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia in 2009. He was in the final year of a five-year, $76.5 million contract when he and the Lions agreed to a five-year, $135 million extension back in 2017.

Stafford was involved in a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff and draft picks in 2021. He signed a four-year extension worth $160 million that included $135 million guaranteed a year later. 

The Rams and Stafford later reworked that deal going into the 2024 season, moving money up from the back of the contract. Stafford was due $27 million and $31 million in the final two years of his deal when the two sides reworked his existing contract again in 2025. 

In 2025, Stafford appeared in all 17 games for the Rams and threw for 4,707 yards while completing 65.0 percent of his passes for 46 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

We’ll have more on Stafford as the news is available.