Rams commit to Matthew Stafford and Alaric Jackson. Now what?

With Matthew Stafford and Alaric Jackson locked in, the Rams can take ‘all systems go’ approach.

The top two priorities for the Los Angeles Rams this offseason were to figure out what they were going to do at quarterback and left tackle. Heading into the spring, the Rams had major questions at two of the most important positions on the offensive side of the ball. Following last season’s messy negotiations with Matthew Stafford, the two sides needed to come together on a deal that worked for both parties. At left tackle, Alaric Jackson was set to hit free agency.

On the same day, the Rams made a commitment to both players. Stafford met with Sean McVay on Friday morning in Los Angeles. While the exact details of a deal weren’t released, the two sides at least have the skeleton of what a deal will look like agreed upon. A short time later, the Rams agreed to terms with Jackson at left tackle on a three-year contract worth up to $57 million.

If the Rams were going to bring back Stafford, it always made sense to also bring back Jackson. Jackson has started in the offense over much of the last two years and brings both a level of comfort and familiarity to the offense. Drafting a tackle was possible as a player like Joshua Simmons may have more upside. However, keeping Jackson and Stafford tied together always seemed like the best path forward. Retaining Jackson for the price of the 9th/10th highest-paid left tackle was also great value.

Now that the Rams have committed to Stafford and Jackson, the question now is, what’s next? It really comes down to how the Rams want to build out the roster. Outside of cornerback and defensive line, this isn’t set to be a great free agent class. Over the next 10 days, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of the bigger free agent names fly off of the board. It seems as if the Cincinnati Bengals are going to work hard with Tee Higgins while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers do the same with Chris Godwin. The Baltimore Ravens have Ronnie Stanley as a top priority while the Kansas City Chiefs have already placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Trey Smith.

Again, who the Rams bring back depends on what they want the roster to look like next season. It will be year two with Chris Shula at defensive coordinator. Are Michael Hoecht, Bobby Brown III, and Ahkello Witherspoon players that are in the big picture for Shula in 2025? McVay has talked about wanting to add more versatility to the offense. Are the Rams able to move on from Jonah Jackson and Cooper Kupp?

Coming into the offseason, the Rams needed to figure out which timeline they wanted to move forward with in 2025. As The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue noted,

“Their young roster, built through two successful drafts, is now their core identity with several of those players eligible for early contract extensions in the next two seasons and that financial planning to eventually map out.”

There was an option for the Rams to move forward with that group, rip off the band-aid, and start the next era of Rams football. However, by committing to Stafford, the Rams move forward with the timeline that they envisioned prior to 2023. There was a reason the Rams went through the re-tool and moved on from big contracts. It was all so that the Rams could rebuild with youth and then put more chips in the middle of the table in 2025 and 2026. We are now at that point and the books are completely clean over the next two years.

With Stafford and Jackson back for next season, the Rams front office needs to plan out what they want the roster to look like. In a weaker free agent class, does it make more sense to bring back some of their own rather than over-spend on outside free agents? General manager Les Snead has drafted well over the last two years. Can he maintain that and what type of players do the Rams want to add to the roster?

The important part here is that the Rams need to have a plan. It’s about figuring out what they want the offensive line to look like, what they want the offensive playmakers to look like, and if there is an opportunity to make a big move that could get them into primary contender status.

Until Matthew Stafford’s future got sorted out, the Rams offseason wasn’t going to officially start. Figuring out Stafford’s future was always step number one. Now that the Rams have their QB1 locked in, Snead and co. can move forward with the mindset of capitalizing one more time in this current Super Bowl window led by Stafford.