Report: Rams, QB Matthew Stafford agree to one-year, $55 million contract extension

Another year, another contract agreement for the Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The Rams and Stafford have agreed to terms on a one-year, $55 million extension that can be worth up to $60 million with incentives, ESPN reported Thursday. Los Angeles announced the extension shortly thereafter.

The reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, 38, is now under contract for the next two years, per ESPN.

His previous deal, which was reworked last offseason, was set to run out after 2026, followed by a lengthy list of void years, per Over the Cap. That prior contract came with far more fanfare after Los Angeles granted Stafford permission in February 2025 to speak with other teams regarding his market value and to gauge potential trade interest, but he eventually stuck with the Rams on a restructured contract.

This time around, Stafford indicated he would be back for the ’26 season during his MVP acceptance speech, and was present for the first day of the team’s offseason program on April 20 as NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported the sides had made significant progress on a new extension.

An official deal took another month, but it’s a well-deserved pay day for Stafford, who has played the best football of his 17-year career over the past five seasons with the Rams.

After 12 seasons struggling to turn the Detroit Lions into a consistent playoff threat, Stafford won Super Bowl LVI during his opening season with Los Angeles. He’s made two of his three Pro Bowls as a Ram, and already has experienced one more postseason than the three he saw in Motown. His age-37 season was his best yet. Stafford led the league with 4,707 passing yards, 46 touchdown passes and a 7.7 touchdown percentage, all career highs, on the way to taking home his first MVP.

He came just shy of reaching another Super Bowl to cap off his finest campaign as a pro, falling to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game despite a 374-yard, three-touchdown performance against the league’s top scoring defense.

L.A. coming so close and Stafford still evidently having more peak performance to give only a few years shy of two decades in the NFL made it an easy decision to run it back. The Rams are committed to staying prepared for life after Stafford, having delivered one of the stunners of the 2026 draft’s first round by selecting QB Ty Simpson 13th overall, but they are clearly still in win-now mode with their wily vet under center.

They have a fierce, young defense on the rise and an offense loaded with talent -- especially Kyren Williams, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams -- around Stafford. They’re even back to their old ways of flipping first-round picks for proven talent, sending the 2026 No. 29 overall pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for cornerback Trent McDuffie in March in a package that included two 2026 Day 3 selections and a ’27 third-rounder. Most importantly, after years of question marks revolving around the fates of Stafford and head coach Sean McVay, both appear as bought in as ever to a future that involves capturing another Lombardi Trophy.

The Rams have found incredible success relying on annual check-ins with Stafford toward the latter stages of his career, and after another extension will again go as far as their MVP quarterback can take them.

By: Bobby Kownack, Digital Content Producer