Some were surprised that the Los Angeles Rams didn’t spend a 2025 NFL Draft pick on an eventual replacement for starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, considering the Rams could part ways with Stafford as soon as next offseason.
For an article published on Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Graziano touched upon why the Rams are seemingly comfortable with having Stafford, backup Jimmy Garoppolo and 2023 fourth-round pick Stetson Bennett in their quarterback room heading into training camp.
“Teams didn’t think very highly of this year’s crop of draft quarterbacks,” Graziano directly said. “Forcing a pick on a quarterback of the future whom you don’t feel great about isn’t the best path for a defending division champion that sees itself as a Super Bowl contender.”
One may never know if the Rams would’ve made Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart the 26th overall pick of the draft if the New York Giants didn’t leapfrog Los Angeles to grab Dart at choice No. 25. Back on May 7, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler noted that Louisville signal-caller Tyler Shough “would have gone pretty quickly” had the New Orleans Saints not taken him with the 40th pick.
The Rams were at selection No. 46, but the New York Jets may have been hoping to get Shough with the 42nd pick.
All that said, the Rams passed on drafting Jalen Milroe, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders, Kyle McCord and Will Howard before those noteworthy quarterbacks went off the board. Perhaps the biggest move Los Angeles made during this year’s draft involved acquiring a 2026 first-round pick from an Atlanta Falcons team that wanted to make edge-rusher James Pearce Jr. the 26th overall choice of this year’s player-selection process.
“If next year’s group of draft quarterbacks is, as most teams seem to expect, better and deeper than this year’s, the Rams have the resources they might need to maneuver in the early rounds and address this situation in 2026,” Graziano added.
It’s far too early to even guess how the Rams could address their quarterback situation following the 2025 season. Stafford will be 38 years old when the next league year opens, but he could show through the upcoming campaign that he has more than just 17 solid performances left in the tank.
