Rams Team Needs For The 2026 Offseason: All Eyes On Matthew Stafford

The Rams entered 2025 with plenty of expectations, but the questionable health of Matthew Stafford's back made it tough to really go ALL in on the squad.

Or not. Stafford held up just fine, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams went bonkers, the run game was elite, and the defense was plenty good enough to lead this team to the second-best point differential in the NFL.

2025: 12-5 (+172 point differential, preseason win total: 9.5)
Points per game: 30.5 (first)
EPA per pass: +0.24 (third)
EPA per rush: +0.02 (fourth)
Points per game against: 20.4 (10th)
EPA per pass against: -0.05 (sixth)
EPA per rush against: -0.1 (12th)

Of course, things get a little tricky when looking ahead to next season—primarily because Stafford is 38 and entering the last year of his deal *if* he decides he wants to keep playing football in the first place. That decision will set the course for the entire offseason: The Rams boast the league's eighth-most cap space and have too good an overall roster to do anything other than try their hardest to compete for a Super Bowl in 2026. Throw in not one but TWO first-round picks, and it's possible next season's squad is actually even more well-rounded than the awesome squad we just saw in 2025.

What Do The Los Angeles Rams Need To Address For 2026?

Secondary

Starting S Kamren Curl and CB Cobie Durant are both unrestricted free agents, leaving Los Angeles with the league's fourth-cheapest secondary entering 2026.

One easy solution would be to use some level of high-end resources on the group through the draft. After all, general manager Les Snead has drafted just *one* defensive back in Rounds 1-3 during the last five drafts combined.

There's not much to complain about here in terms of 2025 performance—this was a good-to-great pass defense by virtually any metric you want to look at—but at a minimum, the Rams need to bring back Curl and Durant, who finished as PFF's 16th-highest ranked safety and 43rd-best corner, respectively.

Quarterback

Ideally, Stafford will choose to stick around, fresh off arguably playing the best football of his career. Either way, a future long-term answer needs to be added sooner rather than later. The only QB the franchise has drafted since Jared Goff is Stetson Bennett in 2023, and he'll (hilariously) already be 29 by next October.

Maybe alleged draft experts will be wrong about this quarterback class being a one-man show. If they are, Alabama QB Ty Simpson feels like the most likely candidate to earn mid-round draft capital—something the Rams suddenly have thanks to acquiring the Falcons first-round pick last April.

Offensive Tackle

This unit finished 2025 as PFF's fourth-ranked group and largely dominated in both the pass blocking (fourth in pressure rate allowed) and run blocking (second in RB rush yards before contact per carry) departments. At full health, this offensive line is borderline elite—but they face some free agency questions at tackle:

Longtime RT Rob Havenstein is hitting free agency after unfortunately only playing seven games due to ankle injuries. Havenstein will be 34 in May.
Backup tackles D.J. Humphries and David Quessenberry are also hitting the open market.

This leaves the Rams with only LT Alaric Jackson and RT Warren McClendon under contract ahead of 2026. Starting both isn't a bad idea considering PFF ranked each inside their top-12 tackles among 95 qualified players at the position. Still, McClendon will be entering the last year of his deal, and hey, adding depth is a necessity either way.

Similar to defensive back, more high-end resources would be nice. The Rams have drafted just two offensive linemen in Rounds 1-3 during these last five drafts combined—tied for the third fewest in the NFL.

Honorable Mention

Puka Nacua is certainly poised to hold down the No. 1 WR spot here for a long time, but Davante Adams will be 34 next December and is entering the last year of his deal. The team also didn't get anything out of hopeful No. 3 WR turned healthy scratch Tutu Atwell, who made $10 million and caught six passes in 2025. That's $1.67 million per catch! I ran the numbers—it's pretty easily the highest mark among any WR in the NFL!

If I Were The GM …

I'd take Matthew Stafford out for a VERY nice steak dinner and give him however much money he wants to suit up again in 2026. The next move would be attempting to find a longer-term answer at the position. If Sean McVay has someone specific in mind, great, but if not, attempting to move back from either of the team's first-rounders to get an extra first-round crack at things in 2027 could be a good move for a roster that has the cap space and current talent to (again) contend for a Super Bowl.