The Los Angeles Rams and Matthew Stafford are in a year-to-year relationship, but Sean McVay hopes it's more than just one more run with the veteran quarterback.
"We have a chance with him every time he's at the switch, and love working with him. And I think he can play as long as he wants, but fortunately, I'm hoping it's a couple more years," McVay told Adam Schein on SiriusXM's Mad Dog Sports Radio.
Stafford inked a revised contract this offseason after similar talks took months to get done last offseason. The Rams allowed the 37-year-old quarterback to seek a potential trade -- which included interest from the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants -- but in the end, Stafford expressed his desire to always remain in L.A.
McVay told Schein that the honest conversations with Stafford have allowed the two most important Rams employees to get closer.
"When you're able to have real conversations with people you love and care about, you can go one of two ways. You can either get further apart, or you can get closer," McVay said. "And there is no question in my mind that he and I are closer than ever. There's a lot of appreciation, there's a lot of gratitude that we were able to work through some of those things.
"To ultimately, I heard (general manager) Les (Snead) say it, to renew the vows. And I think there is kind of a renewal of appreciation for the opportunity to continue to work together. It doesn't go lost on me how fortunate I am to be able to work with somebody as special as he is, both mentally, physically, and more importantly what he means with how he moves as a man, and how he positively affects and influences his teammates and people he's around."
The Super Bowl-winning quarterback has helped keep the Rams contenders despite the roster-churning as L.A. recalibrated from its years of shelling out for a Lombardi. The 2024 upstart Rams won the NFC West and beat the Vikings in the postseason. They gave the Super Bowl champion Eagles their most competitive playoff game in the Divisional Round, with Stafford having a chance to win it late, but coming up short.
McVay said that Stafford is feeling good physically after his 16th season.
"I think he came out of this season feeling really good physically," McVay said. "And one of the things that I think is a tremendous credit to him, Adam, you look at [those] playoff games that he's played in with us, the four his first year where he goes 4-0, leads us to a Super Bowl, you go to the '23 season, he did everything in his power to try to will us to a victory against an excellent Detroit football team in '23. And then this past year, he balls against Minnesota, and he does his thing against Philadelphia."
Despite the offseason chatter, the Rams haven't added a legit long-term solution for when Stafford eventually decides to walk away. Jimmy Garoppolo remains a veteran stop-gap solution, and Stetson Bennett is also on the roster. L.A. didn't draft a rookie this year. The Rams could be waiting for a potentially deeper signal-caller class in 2026.