Les Snead said Tuesday that the Rams are making progress on a Matthew Stafford contract extension, and the team’s top football executive said there should be no drama in the process. There is still no timeline for when the deal will be finished.
Stafford, 38, was at the Rams’ facilities for the start of the offseason program on April 21, 2026, as he heads into a contract year and looks to renegotiate the final season of his deal. Snead’s comments came after Sean McVay said in March that the team has had great dialogue with Stafford and will work things out.
The Rams have been here before. Last May, they re-signed Stafford to a two-year, $84 million contract after he had been set to earn $58 million over the life of his previous deal. Before he agreed to that contract, the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders had shown interest in him, underscoring how valuable the quarterback remained even as the sides revisited his pay.
Stafford’s latest push comes after a season in which he threw for 4,707 yards, 46 touchdowns and eight interceptions and won his first career MVP award. After accepting the award, he said he would return to the Rams next season. Since arriving in Los Angeles in 2021, he has won a Super Bowl and reached the playoffs in four of five seasons, a run that has made him the franchise’s central player and the one the team keeps reworking around.
That reality explains why the talks keep coming back. Contract negotiations have become an annual tradition for Stafford and the Rams, and the team has to balance his importance with practical questions about how much wear it wants on a veteran quarterback with injury history. If Stafford remains the starter, Stetson Bennett is the only other quarterback on the roster, with Jimmy Garoppolo reportedly considering retirement.
For now, the Rams are betting on familiarity and patience. The extension is still unfinished, but the organization’s message on Tuesday was clear: it expects the sides to get there without a public fight.
More on the talks and the lack of a deadline is here: Matthew Stafford contract talks with Rams show progress, no deadline set.