Former Rams director of college scouting Brad Holmes has said farewell, but not good bye.
Holmes, now the General Manager of the Lions, reportedly is talking to his old boss, Rams G.M. Les Snead, regarding possible trade scenarios involving Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. That’s the report from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com.
But it’s one thing to talk about it, and it’s quite another to do it. It will not be easy to do it.
Omitted from the article, for example, is the fact that the Rams don’t own a 2021 first-round draft pick, thanks to the trade that brought cornerback Jalen Ramsey from Jacksonville in 2019. The article also doesn’t delve into the nuts and bolts of Rams quarterback Jared Goff’s contract, which carries more than $43 million in fully-guaranteed payments in 2021 and 2022.
It will be very difficult to find a trade partner for Goff, who has a cap number of $34.625 million in 2021. With the salary cap expected to be in the range of $180 million — and with Stafford making $20 million in 2021 (he could want more than that as part of a trade) — the Rams would have a hard time putting a team around a pair of quarterbacks who consume more than $50 million in cap space.
Even if Goff is traded, the Rams would absorb $22.2 million in cap charges.
With the Rams not having a first-round pick and Goff’s contract creating a cap problem for the Rams, the idea of a trade for Stafford seems far-fetched. The better explanation could be that Snead is simply doing Holmes a favor by trying to goose the market for Stafford. Snead and the Rams would benefit by reinforcing yet again the message that Goff’s job is far from safe, possibly as a last-ditch effort to get him pointed in the right direction.