It's becoming clear the Rams preferred (perhaps obviously) to not have any guaranteed money on Stafford after this year leaving ALL their options open.
And Stafford asking to guarantee the money is a bit of a wrench in their overall plan.
But of course he has leverage and they will likely have to appease him.
Having said that, I'm not saying they don't want Stafford for as long as he is playing at a high level, but being smart, currently, if anything goes awry this year, they could even part ways and draft or pay for a new QB.
Also, we know that the team is locking up most guys for 3 years, with the 3rd year voidable, so it does seem the team wants this current group including McVay to make a run for likely 2 more years, with the possibility of 3, the 3rd year requiring that everything is still working and Stafford still playing at a high level.
But Stafford is forcing their hand a bit earlier than they preferred.
It also seems that perhaps they have been stalling on addressing this with Stafford so his agent did the old "leak this one to the press" and you can tell McVay and Snead were not thrilled to address it during the draft.
At the end of the day it's business and I get both sides.
I will still continue to say that I would be more of a die hard Stafford fan if he was a little more team friendly at this stage in his career.
Guaranteed money isn't necessarily more money, but no doubt the Rams would need to spread this out longer if they agree and would mean likely a substantial dead cap hit in future years after he's gone, and/or retires ala AD.
