“We Are L.A. Strong!”

(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: The Rams held a media “Zoom” availability for Head Coach, Sean McVay, early Monday morning on 3/3, designed to give his remarks and thoughts on the team’s re-signing of QB Matthew Stafford. He had a tremendous amount of information to share with media members in attendance, and for our followers, it is all contained here in this posting. A quick “heads-up” that it will be a very long read, but a most informative and very forthcoming session for all Rams fans to read in-depth, and follow Coach McVay on what will begin to take shape as the countdown to next season has now begun.

Besides speaking about the retention of Matthew Stafford, Coach comments about the status of trading WR/Cooper Kupp, the status of OL/Rob Havenstein, TE/Mike Hoecht, and OL/Alaric Jackson just to name a few other players. There are a lot of areas that Coach discusses so if you read the full transcript, you will definitely be abreast of the latest in the team’s off-season strategic planning up to this point.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the NFL Draft that will take place from Thursday, April 24th, through Saturday, April 26th, in Lambeau Field and its adjacent Titletown District. That will surely start the excitement for the new season and all the expectations that NFL fans will be having for their favorite team.

So now it’s that time to get yourself very comfortable for a good, but a very long read. Keep in mind, you’ll be able to learn for yourself what is happening in many ways off-the-field with the Rams during this time of the NFL year. Our next transcript will feature the press availability with General Manager, Les Snead.

Rams Transcripts – Head Coach Sean McVay – Mon. 3/3/25

[Head Coach Sean McVay]

(On agreeing to a restructured contract with QB Matthew Stafford)…”Yeah, it’s great. Obviously, that was always the end goal in mind. When you go through these conversations, I think the thing that I’m grateful for is the collaboration and the communication throughout the process where sometimes these things can be challenging. Matthew was great. I think Jimmy Sexton, Matthew’s agent, was excellent. [Rams General Manager] Les [Snead] had a lot of dialogue with him and then ultimately, sitting down with Matthew and [Matthew Stafford’s wife] Kelly [Stafford] and being able to have, [Rams President] Kevin [Demoff], Les, and [Vice President of Football and Business Administration] Tony be a part of that. I think it was a really beneficial conversation. Ultimately, it’s about the partnership and how important it is to have him leading the way. [I] couldn’t be more grateful, really excited about it, and [I’ve] been sleeping better these last couple days.”

(On whether there were discussions about Stafford’s future after this season)…”We’ve taken it a year at a time. He’s earned the right to be able to say, ‘Hey, I think I could play for a few more years if that’s what I want.’ We’ve always had great dialogue and I think it’s really kind of been a year-to-year thing. He’s obviously under contract for two more years with us but as long as he wants to play, I know we’re feeling really good about that. Ultimately, the end goal in mind was making sure that… like we talked about at the end of the season press conference, let’s get him settled and situated, and let’s be able to move forward accordingly because you guys know that’s such an important [and] vital spot for us and what his leadership has meant to our football team over the last four years is exactly what we wanted. It’s a big deal to get [OL] Alaric Jackson signed up as well. We had a couple of priorities at the start of the free agency, or really at the start of our offseason planning and those are two big deals for us and hopefully we’ll be able to knock out a few more here in the next coming days.”

(On whether he pitched Stafford on why he should return and what that message was)…”I think what you do is you have an honest conversation. There are four years of equity and a relationship that meant a whole lot to me and a lot to him. There’s a body of work, there are experiences, and there are relationships that’ll go on a lot further on past the time that he plays and past when I [finish my career as a] coach. If you want to say, ‘Did I want that and was that the end goal for our group collectively?’ Absolutely, but I think you want to allow him to be able to come to a decision with Kelly and his family that’s best for him and that he could get excited about. I think that’s the important thing. You want everybody to feel really good about the partnership. You want them to be excited and optimistic. It’s so difficult to do what we do year in and year out, and especially what Matthew has to do as a quarterback leading the way. You want to make sure there are good vibes going into it and we were able to check all those boxes. I think the important thing, and I kind of mentioned it… I don’t know if you saw when I ended up spending some time with [Former Rams OL Andrew Whitworth] ‘Whit’ and [Former NFL QB Ryan Fitzpatrick] ‘Fitz’ on their podcast. I think the important thing throughout this was the end goal in mind was always to have Matthew back as the quarterback. There was never any dispute or discrepancy on that. We wanted to make sure we had all the information necessary and didn’t want to have to do things in secret or whatever you will. There were a lot of narratives that were out there… some of which were accurate and a lot of which were probably not necessarily accurate based on how things can get lost in translation. All I cared about was our dialogue throughout. I haven’t run away from some of the mistakes I’ve made in terms of clear, open, honest, and direct communication in some of these conflict conversations. That was really important, and I think that was key and critical for us to be able to have a smooth process throughout that might’ve seemed uncomfortable from the outside, but it was able to come to as good of a scenario as I could have hoped for honestly when we met together on Friday morning.”

(On what WR Cooper Kupp has meant to him and the fanbase and what factors went into the decision to explore trade options for him)…”I mean, you just said it. This guy has changed my life for the better. We’ve had eight years together. These decisions, similar to Matthew, are not made as a separate entity. These are for the team. You’re ultimately trying to put the puzzle together and with a lot of thought and consideration, we just felt like that was the best direction for our football team. It doesn’t take away the love, respect, and gratitude that you have for what he’s done, but it just came down to what we think is best in terms of putting together the whole puzzle. There are obviously a lot of layers to that. I think you always acknowledge the fact that… Hey, [I’ve] been wrong before and could be wrong again, but we always try to have our core values and the big picture shape our perspective and really our decision-making. It’s not easy, but I couldn’t be more impressed with the human being and how he handles some of those conversations. No matter what, his legacy is cemented as an all-time Ram and most importantly, I’m a better human for having had these eight years with him.”

(On whether they’ve had conversations with Kupp about a contract restructure)…”We haven’t had those types of conversations. It was more along the lines of when Les, Kevin, Tony, myself, and then obviously with communication from personnel and from the coaching staff, it was really… Alright, this is the direction that we’re going to go. We’ll seek a trade. We’ll take it a day at a time. I know Les has had some communication with Ryan Tollner, Cooper’s agent. I’ve had dialogue with Cooper and that’s kind of where we’re at with that.”

(On whether a return to the Rams for Kupp is out of the realm of possibilities)…”I think I would never speak in absolutes, but I do think… let’s gather all the information. We’ll take it a day at a time and we’ll see what the next steps entail.”

(On what he’s learned about his role as the head coach and trying to balance the short-term and long-term futures of the roster)…”Oh man… I think you try to refer to the experience with a lot of the good decisions and to some of the things that we would maybe do differently. It is the element of trusting everybody to do their role and responsibility. I think the one thing that I’m so grateful for and I know I speak for Kevin, Les, and Tony, is having an ownership group in the Kroenke family that supports us, trusts us, builds safety, gives us the freedom to fail, but also acknowledges our mistakes and then ultimately try to be able to do the next right thing for us. It is always a balance and this league is challenging, but I think you try to put that puzzle together. I think you use the previous experiences and then ultimately it is about building a team and what does that look like to acknowledge what’s been going on? What are the things that we need to do to be able to address to be better in certain spots whether that’s coaching, whether that’s schematic, whether that’s personnel-related? And how does that evolve and adapt with the fluidity and flexibility that’s necessary on a year-to-year basis? I would’ve told you a couple of years ago that we need this and now that’s changed. I think the ever-evolving landscape of the league and the challenges are what make this fun. That is a fluid situation but ultimately, it’s about the collaboration amongst the group. I think it’s been pretty fruitful up to this point and looking forward to trying to do it better than we’ve ever done it before in year nine.”

(On whether there was a point this offseason when he believed Stafford would not return to the Rams)…”No, that was never something that I ever thought would occur.”

(On what the conversations with Stafford have been like and why they allowed other teams to speak with him)…”Here’s the deal. You guys know when we made the contract adjustment last year, there was always an understanding that he wouldn’t play under the number that he was due this coming year. Now what exactly that was… we always knew that there would be some form of an adjustment based on what we did that [on the] first day of training camp in terms of how we moved things around and got him to where he was last year. That was something that we always knew was coming down and when he felt good with the way the season ended, and obviously we were all ecstatic about him wanting to continue to play and play at a high level. Now it’s just figuring out the semantics of… alright, there’s no way to put an actual value on what he means, but what does it look like to be able to fit it for the landscape of our football team, where we’re at, knowing how many years he wants to play and what does that look like for the short and for the long term? Fortunately, we were able to come to a compromise and a conclusion that everybody feels really good about. It’s a great reflection of him and our group.”

(On whether they’ll have another conversation with Stafford next year about his contract situation)…”Oh yeah, but here’s the positive. Last year, it took about seven months. This year, about three weeks. Maybe it’ll be about two or three days next year if we have to do this.”

(On the conversation with Stafford last week and whether his decision was already made to return to the Rams)…” I want to keep it relatively in-house just because of the [private nature of the] conversation. Here was the goal and here was the intent… to make sure that we’re just all on the same page and we feel good and excited about this partnership moving forward knowing how instrumental the Stafford family as a whole is to what we want to be able to do and how important it was for our leadership group to just make sure that… hey, I know this. The people that I love and care about the most, I’m able to have real conversations with. Ultimately that was the goal is making sure that yes, we all felt good about where we were coming from, and we wanted to make sure that after we were able to have that dialogue that was open and honest… it went better than I could’ve ever hoped. We all felt good about the direction that we’re headed and that was exactly what was accomplished. For that, I was very grateful for everybody that was involved.”

(On whether they would like to re-sign QB Jimmy Garoppolo)…”We would love to bring him back. I obviously have been very busy working through the Matthew situation. That’s the hope and anticipation. Now, you guys know that there might be some other interest and Jimmy’s earned the right to be able to have that type of interest. But yes, if you said, would I want Jimmy back here to be able to work in the quarterback room with [Quarterbacks Coach] Dave Ragone and Matthew and those guys? The answer is absolutely yes.”

(On the conversations with other pending free agents such as NT Bobby Brown III and OLB Michael Hoecht)…”Those are fluid. We are a week away from the negotiation period and being able to start talking to other teams. I think in an ideal scenario, you’re able to get some of your guys that you want to be able to bring back in-house and taken care of before that bell rings so you have an idea of what it looks like to be able to build out and some of the different things that we have relative to our budget and the team building element of it. I don’t want to get too specific just for competitive reasons, but those are guys that you mentioned and there are some other guys that we’ll be working [with] in the background to be able to see if we can come to a decision and a conclusion. If we are, we’ll be excited about it.”

(On his approach to replacing Kupp and whether that’s something he would do during free agency or the draft)…“I think you look at all ways. What are the different avenues to onboard people? You kind of just mentioned them. There’s resigning our own, there’s free agency, there’s the draft and then there are trades. We’ll explore every avenue. I think similar to what we’ve talked about whether it be [Former Rams DE] Aaron [Donald] or some of these other special players, you’re not asking anybody to replace or to be Cooper Kupp. He established a legacy and cemented himself as one of the all-time greats. I do think it’ll offer an opportunity for Puka Nacua to take on a big role in terms of just being the natural leader in his own personality where he’s able to kind of lead that room alongside [Pass Game Coordinator] Nate Scheelhaase, [Wide Receivers Coach] Eric Yarber and [Offensive Assistant] Rob Calabrese. We’re in the midst of working through that. We’ll see what that looks like, but you don’t replace a Cooper Kupp and what he has meant to us for so many different things on and off the field.”

(On the open communication with Jimmy Sexton while giving Stafford permission to speak to other teams and what that process was like)…“I can’t speak on behalf of what the conversations with Jimmy entailed with some of the teams that were interested, but I think the ultimate intent from our perspective was there were a lot of conversations. [General Manager] Les [Snead] being able to just return some calls and have some dialogue with the end goal in mind always having him back. If that was ever something that was going to happen, which is not what we wanted, but if that ever was something that you would’ve had to go that direction, there would’ve been two factors. Number one, what’s the draft comp that you would receive in return that you would deem worth even considering? Number two, what would be the parameters at which he would agree to sign a new deal based on what we did in terms of adjusting his contract? It was really just to have open communication and not have to necessarily do anything behind the scenes. A lot of it was a reflection of some of the mistakes that I feel like I’ve made in previous years. I didn’t want to go down that path. I wanted to make sure you’re accountable for the things that we’ve talked about and that I’ve been open about. I think that was kind of the thought process. Obviously, the end goal in mind was always to stand up where we did on Friday and for that I’m really grateful.”

(On whether Stafford’s contract is year-to-year under the current framework of the existing extension or whether they’ll adjust it to reflect a one-year contract)…“No, I’ll tell you this. [Vice President, Football & Business Administration] Tony [Pastoors] will work through all those semantics with our group but ultimately, we were able to agree on what that adjustment would be for this coming year with the two years that he has remaining under contract with the Rams.”

(On his conversation with Stafford being the starting quarterback while also planning for the future at the quarterback position)…“He has been great. I don’t think there’s ever been a threat to whether he wants to continue to play. I think he’s playing at such a high level. It’s not necessarily as much contingency plans. It’s just operating under the assumption where you’re saying however long you want to play in the way that you’re playing, this is outstanding for us. At some point when you decide that you’re ready to be able to transition into a new phase of your life, I’m hopeful to still be here and we’re still hopeful to be here. What does that look like without him leading the way? I think the first thing is you have to have people that you believe are legitimate candidates to be a starting caliber quarterback and to lead your organization. We’ve been very spoiled since I’ve been here in a good way with what [Detroit Lions QB] Jared Goff did for the first four years and what Matthew has done for the last four years. I don’t take lightly what a big deal that will be whenever that time comes. Hopefully it’s not something that we have to deal with at any time. I do think that the important thing is you have to identify people that can legitimately continue to move your football team in a manner that’s reflective of what you want forward while also acknowledging the fact that it’s not going to be the same. This guy is unique and he’s a hall of famer. It’s why I’ll be putting a gold jacket on five years after the day he retires.”

(On the status of OL Rob Havenstein and TE Tyler Higbee)…“Yeah, that’s the full expectation. Those guys are instrumental to our success. I thought both of them played at a really high level. Obviously, some of the injuries they both worked through… but when those guys were on the football field for us, we were a different offense. You could tangibly feel the difference that Higbee made when he came back from the Jets game on. When Rob was in there, the leadership, the production, the overall toughness and competitiveness was outstanding. Both of those guys we fully expect back.”

(On the process of gathering information from the scouts for the draft and creating his own player evaluations)…“I think the first thing I would say is we’ve a tremendous amount of trust in Les and his group. I think we’ve gotten better and better at identifying all kinds of guys. Les and his group do an incredible job of vetting, doing a bunch of different background checks, trying to be able to quantify things that aren’t necessarily quantifiable to be able to help identify the makeup and different things. We let the tape guide the majority of our evaluations. Because Les and I have such a good rapport, because there’s such an understanding of where we want to go and what the vision is for our football team, it’s been really seamless. Congratulations to [Jaguars General Manager] James Gladstone, really happy for him and what he’s going to do leading the way for the Jags. That’s awesome for James. He’s earned that right. It’s about continuing to identify and build. I think when you literally look at these last two years, we’ve been able to hit some spots. You don’t take for granted how special those men are that have come in and earned their right to be who they’ve been. There has been a very specific and a sequential thought process in terms of identifying those guys and then being able to have the ability to draft them when you feel appropriate based on what it looks like for the landscape of the league. It’s been really exciting. I think there has been a really good process with our scouts and coaches working in collaboration to identify undrafted free agents where these guys have come in and contributed. That’s been something that has been big for the collective of our football team. It’s an ongoing deal. It’s continuing to identify where those spots are and how many different great players and great people, most importantly, can we continue to bring into our atmosphere and our environment.”

(On the value of bringing Pass Game Coordinator Nate Scheelhaase back and whether he’ll have any added responsibilities)…“Yeah, he’s a stud. He’ll be the pass game coordinator. He’ll be involved in all parts of the game plan and work closely with the wide receivers. The best thing I can say about Nate is there are certain people you’re around, they come in, they have a role and a responsibility that’s defined and they do a great job with that. The great ones redefine what that is because they just do a little bit more. They’re just a little bit more intrinsically motivated. They’ve just a little bit better feel on how you deal with people. I think this guy is a special coach. I’m not going to take for granted the time that I do have with him because I thought it was cool that he chose to stay with us with some other opportunities he had. That meant a lot to me. He is a rising star without a doubt.”

(On whether any position groups stood out to him at the combine despite not attending)…“I would say this, I’ve really immersed myself more in the tape. You kind of get updates and you’re kind of watching from afar. Part of the reason that we do stay back is such trust in our scouts to be able to use the information that’s gained during that week to be able to help with our evaluations. I know the most important thing for me and our coaches is to get up to speed on the college film. Les and his group have done a great job getting ahead of that process. That’s what they’ve really been doing throughout the season in the background so just continuing to trust the vetting from our group. I’m in tune with just some of the numbers and things like that, but I’ve really been more immersed in the tape and where we’re at in our draft process in-house. I think our coaches and our scouts have done a really good job of identifying people that we have at the upper echelon of our board. We’ll continue to work through that as we get closer to the draft.”

(On the difficulty making the decision to move on from Kupp knowing he’s an invaluable asset inside the locker room)…“There hasn’t been a more challenging decision since I’ve been here going into year nine. I do think you have to be able to acknowledge. It doesn’t mean that you don’t still see a lot of amazing things that he can contribute. It’s about the big picture, but it was hard. It was really hard. I think there’s a lot of love. I think he understands how much he’s meant to me. I do think that in spite of a uniquely challenging situation, I know that the relationship and the bond that we have is strong enough to be able to sustain. I think over time there’s a lot of appreciation when you look back on those things. It’s been really challenging. The first thing we always talk about is one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we’re making decisions that we think are best for everybody, even if it doesn’t benefit some people that have been incredibly instrumental in a lot of good things that have gone on here [like] setting the culture. He has checked the box and is doing everything that’s right.”

(On whether he was confident in Stafford staying because of his relationship with him)…“It was based on the process throughout and what we all knew we wanted as the end goal in mind. I think that’s really as simple as I can get. There was always going to have to be a decision on our part if he wasn’t going to be here. That was never something that I felt like ever got close to and it was never something that I allowed my mind to go to.”

    –RAMS–