It took a while to work out, but it appears that the Matt Stafford/Jared Goff trade has become a rare occurrence in the NFL that has greatly benefited both teams. The Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl outright in their first year with Stafford as their starter, and right now the Detroit Lions are the obvious favorites to win the Super Bowl this year – regardless of another failure against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving.

The Lions are as well-coached as any team in the sport and have built an incredibly talented team around Goff, who has significantly improved his game since beginning his career with the Rams. Still, any serious eye test will tell you that even at 36 years old, Stafford is still the far superior quarterback.

If you have any doubts, just ask any fan of the Seattle Seahawks, who still haven’t managed to beat LA when Stafford is in the lineup. An NFL analyst believes Stafford could play for Seattle next season.

Here’s Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon predicting the Seahawks will move on from Geno Smith and sign Stafford.

B/R via Matt Stafford to Seahawks

“The Giants, Raiders and Titans could show interest if the Rams part ways, but Stafford might prefer to join a more competitive Seattle team to finish out his career. The Jets may not want to go down the Rodgers route, and Seattle could see this as a great opportunity to upgrade with the window open.

A fascinating idea. Stafford is an upgrade over Geno Smith, even if Stafford is entering the twilight phase of his career. If he moves to another team next offseason, it’s likely it will be his last NFL team before he retires.

However, Smith is only a few years younger and has regressed into a less reliable version of himself after being mentally broken by Seattle’s utterly failed pass protection systems. Smith experienced high-volume periods with Seattle in 2022 and 2023 and managed to break out of them. This season, Smith threw a pick on his first possession and never really managed to get rid of it, even though he still throws a lot of really, really good balls out there.

Why it could actually happen

Stafford, of course, is a bit of a gunslinger himself, but nowhere near as ruthless as Geno was now or when Stafford was in his early days with the Lions, when all he had to do was Calvin Johnson and a life of prayer. Smith’s issues with the panic throw stem from the same problem that has kept Stafford and Johnson out of the playoffs most years. Aside from Abe Lucas and Charles Cross, Seattle may be short on personnel in the trenches – but it’s well known that Smith can’t get past the line play that way, and getting this unit up to speed will likely be more than a one-year project .

As precise and nimble as the modern Geno Smith may be, the recurring and increasing interception problems make a quarterback change next year an increasingly likely scenario. Stafford is a cooler customer at this stage of his career and would likely produce far better results throwing behind an even slightly improved offensive line. If not, Stafford has as much experience as any QB on the planet at overcoming poor line play.

Signing a veteran like Stafford would also fit with Seattle’s long-standing aversion to inexperienced quarterbacks. Instead of selecting a QB in this last draft class, they traded for Sam Howell, which follows the decisions to sign Geno Smith, trade for Drew Lock, and release Tarvaris Jackson for one year following the departure of Matt Hasselbeck. In fact, Russell Wilson is literally the only rookie they’ve given a legitimate chance to start since John Schneider took over as general manager in 2010.

Matt Stafford contract information

The catch with this idea, of course, is that Stafford will still be under contract with the Rams next year. However, there is reason to believe that change is coming. In the offseason, Stafford agreed to a modified contract that gave him $23.5 million in guarantees for 2024, but waived his guarantees for 2025. NFL Network described it as a one-year, $40 million deal.

Stafford turns 37 in February. Then they have to make a decision on the $4 million in roster guarantee Stafford is due in March. If they miss the playoffs, Les Snead and Sean McVay could decide to move on to a younger direction, so cutting Stafford at that point would make sense for roster savings.

Should he hit the market, the Seahawks could offer a reasonable two-year deal somewhere in the range of recent Derek Carr-Aaron Rodgers contracts. Assuming the defense continues to improve, Stafford-level QB play at that price could be enough to put Seattle over the top.

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