Matthew Stafford has done exactly what the Los Angeles Rams brought him in to do: win a championship. Though the team came up short of its goal to win another ring this season, Stafford still gives Los Angeles the best chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy again – even going on 37 years old.
Though there is some uncertainty about his future with the Rams due to his contract and eventual retirement, there’s reason to believe he’ll be back in Los Angeles in 2025. FOX Sports’ Nick Wright has another idea, though.
During “First Things First” on Tuesday, Wright pitched a wild QB-for-QB trade that would most certainly be viewed as a loss for the Rams. He floated the idea of the Rams trading Stafford to the Miami Dolphins for Tua Tagovailoa. No picks, no other players. Just those two.
“I have one one-for-one quarterback trade that I would put a phone call in on,” Wright said. “I might call Miami and say Stafford for Tua.”
.@getnickwright wouldn’t trade Matt Stafford, but if he did… he has an interesting trade proposal 👀
“I might call Miami and say Stafford for Tua.” pic.twitter.com/KC4Hf33Tnt
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) January 21, 2025
First things first (pun intended), there’s a near-0% chance the Rams would ever make this call. Yes, Tagovailoa is 10 years younger, but he also just missed six games in 2024 and has only played more than 13 games once in his career. And while he did lead the NFL in passing yards in 2023, his numbers dropped off significantly this past season.
The Rams do need a succession plan behind Stafford but Tagovailoa isn’t it, nor would he be even remotely cheap; he just signed a $212.4 million contract last year and has cap hits between $53 million and $65 million from 2026-2028.
“If you’re thinking about, we need to get younger at the position and probably draft a guy, but we don’t want to just immediately spin that roulette wheel,” Wright continued. “If McVay is like, ‘Man, I can do better with Tua than Mike McDaniel did.’ And if the Dolphins are like, ‘Man, we’ve got maybe one more year before Tyreek burns the building down. Like we’re trying to win right now, we have all these weapons.’ If you’re Miami, it would be admitting defeat on Tua and just trying to go for it right now.”
It would be a great deal for the Dolphins, making them much stronger Super Bowl contenders in the AFC. There’s no doubt the Rams’ championship odds would worsen by acquiring Tagovailoa in a deal for Stafford.
Even 10 years his elder, Stafford is a significantly better quarterback than Tagovailoa now, and probably will be for the next two years.
