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Los Angeles Rams News & Rumors

Matthew Stafford Fully Cleared For Rams’ Offseason Program

April 8th, 2023 at 2:10pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Rams have made some significant changes this offseason, a period that has seen a perennially all-in team scale down its operation and proceed conservatively. But the Rams still feature many Super Bowl LVI starters on their roster. Obviously, none will be more important to the team’s 2023 cause than Matthew Stafford.

Stafford’s 2022 proved concerning through a long-term lens. The 14-year veteran did not throw during the Rams’ offseason program due to a nagging elbow injury, and he landed in the team’s concussion protocol twice during an abbreviated season. A spinal cord contusion ended up shutting Stafford down early. Stafford squashed retirement rumors — on his wife’s podcast — late during a season in which the Rams also sent organizational pillars Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp to IR. Donald and Kupp remain, but the team moved on from standouts Jalen Ramsey, Leonard Floyd and Bobby Wagner this offseason.

While injuries have started to pile up for Stafford, the former Lions centerpiece has managed to play through most of them over the course of his career. And the Rams’ 2021 trade that sent Jared Goff to Detroit did produce a Super Bowl title. Between the regular season and playoffs that year, Stafford threw for 6,074 yards and added 50 touchdown passes.

Sean McVay is now confident his starter will be ready to pick up where that season left off, following the injury-restricted 2022. While the team will likely proceed carefully with its starter, McVay said Stafford will have no limitations going into Los Angeles’ offseason program.

“I think he’d be better equipped to answer this, but I think it’s been a long time since he’s been healthy through an offseason, where he’s been able to throw,” McVay said, via Rams.com’s Stu Jackson. “I was just with him the other morning where he was in there early [at the facility] working, being able to do the things that are in alignment with preparing for the season.

“I think last year, there was such a unique combination and collaboration of things that prevented him from being able to play the way that he’s capable of, whether it was the things that he dealt with, some of the surrounding parts, missing a lot of time leading up into the season with some of the injuries and just different things that he was working through.”

Stafford missed eight games last season. He also missed eight during the 2019 campaign, with a back injury sidelining him. In the other seasons from 2011-21, however, the Super Bowl-winning QB did not miss a game. The Rams will bank on their veteran passer’s durability next season. They will have to, at this point, considering the contract they authorized last year.

As part of the four-year, $160MM deal the Rams gave Stafford — during an offseason in which L.A. also extended Kupp and gave Donald a record-setting raise — $57MM of the QB’s contract became guaranteed recently. Stafford’s $26MM option bonus and his $31MM 2024 base salary are now locked in. The Rams have their quarterback on a manageable $20MM cap number this season but may need to go to the restructure well for 2024, when the cap hit spikes to $49.5MM.

Giants Not Out On Odell Beckham Jr.; Jets, Ravens, Rams Interested

March 28th, 2023 at 2:04pm CST by Sam Robinson

MARCH 28: Attempting to move this process along, Beckham has arrived in Arizona for this round of owners’ meetings. The free agent receiver is expected to meet with teams, and Josina Anderson of CBS Sports notes the Ravens are one of them (Twitter link). Baltimore has added Nelson Agholor in free agency, but the team still features a need for pass catchers — regardless of who will be playing quarterback in 2023. For the time being, Beckham is not expected to meet with the Giants at the league meetings, SNY’s Connor Hughes adds (on Twitter).

MARCH 27: The Giants have been busy at the receiver position this offseason, bringing back Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton and signing Parris Campbell and Jamison Crowder. This glut of veterans, however, will not take them off the Odell Beckham Jr. radar.

While a previous report indicated the Giants are likely out on a Beckham reunion, John Mara said Monday (via the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard) he is in favor of bringing the standout wide receiver back. The longtime owner, however, deferred to his GM and head coach by indicating this is contingent on OBJ fitting into Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll‘s plans.

Mara’s comments come after Robert Saleh confirmed the Jets are indeed interested in signing Beckham, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. The Jets have been on the OBJ radar for a bit now, with Aaron Rodgers wanting to see his likely next NFL team add the talented but injury-prone wideout. Mutual interest is believed to exist.

Beckham expressed interest in rejoining the Giants, who traded him in March 2019, and the team re-signing Shepard and franchise-tagging Saquon Barkley will help keep that door open. Both players have been longtime Beckham friends, dating back to the trio’s time together before the Browns trade. But the Giants still should be considered more likely to finish off their wide receiver augmentations early in the draft. Still, Beckham being available nearly four months after his free agency visit — and after the Cowboys went in another direction — keeps the door slightly ajar for the Giants, who should not be considered certain to carry each of the receivers they signed and re-signed on their 53-man roster come September.

Jets GM Joe Douglas confirmed Monday he has spoken with Beckham’s agent, noting productive conversations have taken place. Douglas expressed confidence in the team’s adjusted receiving corps, via Garafolo, but added OBJ is a “unique player” who remains on the team’s radar. A Beckham-Jets meeting is in play, but Douglas adds nothing is scheduled just yet.

The Jets have signed Allen Lazard and Mecole Hardman while shipping out Elijah Moore after two seasons. Beckham remaining on the radar keeps Corey Davis on unsteady ground. The Jets can save $10.5MM by moving on from the former top-five pick, who has one season left on his three-year contract.

The Rams are still keeping tabs on Beckham, GM Les Snead said Monday. That said, The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue does not sense much urgency on the Rams’ part here (Twitter links). Last year, the Rams, as they eyed a Super Bowl title defense, loomed as the frontrunners for months. Snead, Sean McVay and COO Kevin Demoff expressed a desire for Beckham to be re-signed. But OBJ did not like the team’s incentive-laden offer and went ahead with Bills, Giants and Cowboys visits.

McVay’s team is in a different place a year later, trading Jalen Ramsey and cutting Leonard Floyd as they attempt to cut costs and regroup after years of a Super Bowl pursuit. Unless Beckham’s market nosedives further than it already has appeared to, the Rams do not make too much sense as a landing spot any longer.

NFC West Coaching Updates: Rams, Kubiak, Cardinals

March 26th, 2023 at 8:25pm CST by Ely Allen

The Rams announced that they’ve finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 season earlier this month, according to Rams staff writer Stu Jackson. We covered a number of the changes from 2022 already, but below are the ones we have yet to cover.

With the departure of Thomas Brown, who will be calling plays for the Panthers in 2023, head coach Sean McVay had an opening for a new assistant head coach. We heard last month that the team added Jimmy Lake to the staff, but we didn’t have details on his role. It turns out that he will be replacing Brown as the Rams assistant head coach.

On offense, the biggest change we have yet to cover is the addition of Ron Gould as the team’s new running backs coach. After allowing Ra’Shaad Samples to depart for a college position, the Rams went and poached Gould away from San Diego State a month after Gould was named the associate head coach and running backs coach for the Aztecs. He spent the last six years coaching running backs at Stanford. Additionally, two assistants received promotions this offseason. Jake Peetz, who was an offensive assistant last year has been given the new title of pass game specialist. Kenneth Black, last year’s coaching fellow in Los Angeles, will fill Peetz’s previous role of offensive assistant.

Los Angeles made two new additions to the defensive staff. They hired Joe Coniglio to coach outside linebackers in 2023. Coniglio played a similar role for Navy last season. The other addition is Andrew Carter, who will be the new assistant defensive line coach after the departure of Skyler Jones. Carter was a defensive quality control coach for the Broncos last year.

Additionally, the Rams’ defensive staff saw a rare swap occur. Chris Shula, who served last year as the team’s pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach, will spend 2023 as the inside linebackers coach/pass rush coordinator. Last year’s inside linebackers coach, Chris Beake, will now coach defensive backs.

Here are some other staff changes in the NFC West:

  • We heard last month that the 49ers added Klint Kubiak to their staff in an unnamed role. The team recently announced that Kubiak will serve as San Francisco’s offensive passing game specialist in 2023. The 49ers also announced the hires of Jacob Webster as defensive quality control coach and Max Molz as coaching operations assistant. Both are making their NFL-debuts with Webster coming from Wisconsin as a graduate assistant and Molz serving as the associate director of football operations at Missouri last year.
  • The Cardinals hired some personnel help for new general manager Monti Ossenfort earlier this week, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. Arizona is bringing in Rob Kisiel to a pro personnel department executive position. Kisiel has been a pro scout for the Falcons for the last two seasons and previously served as director of pro personnel for the Texans.

NFL Restructures: Okwara, Allen, Fatukasi

March 26th, 2023 at 6:58pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are a few details on recent contract restructures around the league:

  • Lions edge rusher Romeo Okwara came to an agreement to restructure his contract at the beginning of the week. According to Field Yates of ESPN, the renegotiated contract reduces his cap hit in 2023 from $14.5MM to $5.65MM.
  • After center Brian Allen reportedly agreed to a renegotiated deal, the Rams benefitted from a bit of cap relief. According to Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, Allen’s restructured contract saved approximately $3.2MM in cap space for Los Angeles.
  • The Jaguars were able to reach an agreement on a restructured contract with defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi recently. The team converted $7.38MM of Fatukasi’s base salary into a signing bonus and added three void years. The moves resulted in about $5.9MM of additional cap space in 2023.

AFC East Notes: Ramsey, Patriots, Hardman

March 24th, 2023 at 9:49am CST by Sam Robinson

A year after acquiring Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb via trade, the Dolphins added another standout in Jalen Ramsey. Miami became a destination for Ramsey, whom Albert Breer of SI.com notes had zeroed in on landing with the AFC East club. Sean McVay met with Ramsey in January and informed him the Rams would explore trade options, mentioning the team would explore a deal as a way to restock its draft capital and reduce costs. Rams GM Les Snead called teams two weeks before the Combine to gauge interest, and after Dolphins GM Chris Grier confirmed his team might be, Vic Fangio provided a positive opinion of Ramsey’s place in his defense.

After Ramsey’s agent informed him about a Miami deal, the All-Pro cornerback instructed his representative to make sure he ended up there. The Rams may not have traded Ramsey to the Dolphins just because he wanted to be there, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic tweets, but they did want him out of the NFC. Snead’s price point was initially too high for the Dolphins, per Breer, but the sides settled on a package of a third-round pick and tight end Hunter Long. A far cry from what the Rams sent the Jaguars for Ramsey in 2019 — two first-round picks and a fourth — but the Dolphins now have the eighth-year veteran on the roster and have since adjusted his contract.

Here is the latest from the AFC East:

  • The Patriots discussed DeAndre Hopkins with the Cardinals early this offseason, per The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, but they backed off due to Arizona’s ask (subscription required). The Cardinals are rumored to be seeking a second-round pick and change here. The NFC West team is not expected to land that, as Howe adds other teams believe the Cards want to dump Hopkins’ salary ($19.45MM in 2023). The Bills and Chiefs are now the closest links to the former All-Pro wideout.
  • Mecole Hardman committed to the Jets after Aaron Rodgers indicated he wanted to be traded to New York, but the ex-Chiefs wideout said (via ESPN’s Rich Cimini) the four-time MVP’s intentions did not affect his decision. While it would seem that would have at least moved the needle a bit — compared to a world in which Zach Wilson was on track for a third QB1 Jets season, at least — Hardman said he was excited to play with Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard. Hardman added (via the New York Post’s Brian Costello) the Jets showed interest throughout his free agency, which ended with a one-year deal worth up to $6.5MM. Hardman did not elaborate on a Chiefs offer to bring him back, but he seemed to confirm the defending champions’ previously reported plan to move on.
  • A faction of the Patriots‘ locker room voiced support for Bailey Zappe during last season’s brief QB controversy, Devin McCourty confirmed during a WEEI interview (via ESPN’s Mike Reiss). “It was just a back and forth, which to me, spoke more about what we had on offense than the quarterback,” McCourty said. “We never were solidified as an offensive group that guys had full confidence in anything we were doing. There was never true hope.” The Pats, who regressed on offense in 2022, have since rehired Bill O’Brien as OC. While Mac Jones won his job back amid a dysfunctional season, the Pats will give Zappe a chance to push him this year.
  • The incentives in Mike Gesicki‘s one-year, $4.5MM Patriots contract include $300K bumps starting at the 40-reception mark, Doug Kyed of AtoZSports.com tweets. Gesicki could collect $1.2MM if he reaches 70 catches in 2023. There are also up to $1.2MM in available yardage incentives, with that escalator package starting at 450 yards and ending at 750. Playing-time incentives are also included in the package.
  • Up to $4MM in incentives are present in Riley Reiff‘s one-year, $5MM deal. He will earn $800K by playing 53% of the Pats’ offensive snaps, per Kyed (on Twitter). These figures decrease the higher the snap rate goes, but Reiff can earn all $4.5MM by reaching an 80% snap rate.

Packers Re-Sign OLB Justin Hollins

March 23rd, 2023 at 9:05pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Packers claimed Justin Hollins off waivers midway through the 2022 season, and his play upon arrival has earned him an extended stay. Per a team announcement, the veteran pass rusher has re-signed on a new deal in Green Bay.

Hollins, 27, was a draftee of the Broncos but only spent his rookie campaign in Denver. He was waived ahead of the 2020 season and claimed by the Rams, with whom he took on an incrementally larger role in each season. Hollins registered seven starts across 34 games in Los Angeles, working his way up to a 50% snap share in his 10 games in 2022.

The former fifth-rounder notched only one sack in that span, however, leading the Rams to waive him in November amidst their general struggles in the pass rush department. No player outside of Leonard Floyd managed to record more than one sack for the Rams’ edge rushers, so the position figures to be a position of interest in the secondary waves of free agency and the draft.

With the Packers, Hollins saw a lesser role in six games compared to his workload with the Rams earlier in the year. He was more productive in Green Bay, though, notching 2.5 sacks and three tackles for loss. He added nine total tackles and four QB hits, numbers which will earn him a full season with the team in 2023.

The Oregon product will look to maintain a rotational role amongst the Packers’ edge rushers next season. Green Bay has Rashan Gary and Preston Smith at the top of the depth chart, but the former suffered an ACL tear in November. Hollins could serve as an insurance policy if Gary is unable to return in time for Week 1, and provide a depth option for the team when he is available moving forward.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/22/23

March 22nd, 2023 at 6:20pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are today’s minor moves from around the NFL:

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

San Francisco 49ers

Rams HC Sean McVay Committed To Remaining In Current Post Long-Term

March 19th, 2023 at 4:54pm CST by Adam La Rose

The 2023 offseason has seen a number of changes so far for the Rams, but one constant will be head coach Sean McVay remaining on the sidelines in his current post. After consecutive years of his future being in doubt, the 37-year-old spoke on staying committed to Los Angeles for the foreseeable future.

McVay drew considerable interest from TV networks in each of the past two offseasons, with the decorated coach having dealt with a wide range of different issues recently. The Rams won Super Bowl LVI, but their title defense included a myriad of injuries and a 5-12 season. He took time away to contemplate his future this winter, but ultimately decided to extend his tenure to a seventh season at the helm. A repeat of the recent uncertainty surrounding his intentions is something he is now looking to avoid.

“What I didn’t want to do was make a decision that it comes up every year,” McVay said, via USA Today’s Tyler Dragon. “You want to make sure you’re making a decision that’s in alignment for years to come and not an every year type of deal… There are a lot of people you feel a great deal of responsibility to do right by them and to do a great job within the framework of your responsibilities. I’m really committed to not having this become a story every single year.”

McVay owns a .612 regular season winning percentage and has a pair of Super Bowl appearances on his resume. That success is expected to be replaced by a transition period for the franchise, though, following their aggressive moves in recent years. General manager Les Snead recently spoke about the “remodeling” the team is undergoing, with quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Aaron Donald named as the only veterans deemed to be untouchable for potential trades.

Those three players, along with Snead and McVay, each signed new deals last offseason. The latter faces the tall order of helping the team return to its past success under his guidance, but he has now publicly confirmed that his place will remain the sidelines for years to come.

“There was never a doubt whether you wanted to coach again,” he added. “It’s really just are you gonna be able to have the appropriate perspective to be the best version of yourself for the players and coaches. “I feel confident that can exist moving forward.”

RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/15/23

March 15th, 2023 at 9:04pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s tender decisions from around the NFL:

RFAs

Tendered:

Non-tendered:

ERFAs

Tendered:

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