The Las Vegas Raiders made the entirely predictable yet extremely risk decision to hire Pete Carroll as head coach. Tom Brady has been more or less running the show since joining the organization as a minority owner. It should come as no surprise that Brady, a seven-time champ with an insatiable competitive appetite, opted for the experienced coach with Super Bowl pedigree.
Carroll will turn 74 this season, though, making him the oldest head coach in NFL history. Even if Carroll still has his fastball, his window is much shorter than many of the young coaches taking over these days, such as Liam Coen in Jacksonville or Ben Johnson in Chicago. The Raiders need to scale up from an AFC basement-dweller to a contender quickly in order to maximize Carroll's presumably brief tenure.
That makes their quarterback conundrum a bit complicated. The natural course of action would be to draft a potential franchise cornerstone with the No. 6 pick, but the Raiders can't be sure that Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders — the only QBs worth a first-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft — will actually fall to sixth. Moreover, it's hard to justify the uncertainty of developing a rookie QB when your offseason maneuvers to date are so clearly predicated on contending sooner than later.
The Raiders might prefer to sign a quarterback in free agency, but the options there are... limited, to say the least. That leads us to a natural trade candidate — Los Angeles Rams signal-caller and former Super Bowl champ Matthew Stafford.
This Raiders-Rams trade would put Matthew Stafford under Tom Brady's leadership
It can be difficult to gauge Matthew Stafford's trade value as a 37-year-old on the downswing of his career. He's getting closer to retirement and yet he's also due for a major pay increase next season. The Rams are asking for a first-round pick, which feels like a stretch.
The Raiders, however, can justify an aggressive approach on such an expedited timeline. Coughing up second and third-round picks (with a fourth-round pick coming back with Stafford) feels like fair value if Stafford can still deliver a few more years of high-level quarterback play. The Raiders would trade for Stafford with the intention of making the playoffs next season — maybe even trying to challenge Kansas City in the AFC West. If there is internal belief Stafford puts them in that position, then it's justified. We should expect the Tom Brady-John Spytek front office to operate with considerable aggression.
Stafford is, without a doubt, better than Las Vegas' current options at quarterback. Gardner Minshew was a huge disappointment coming off of a fluky Pro Bowl campaign in Indianapolis. Aidan O'Connell, meanwhile, could not live up to sophomore expectations. He battled through injuries, but never looked like more than a semi-competent backup. Desmond Ridder obviously didn't work out either.
It's fair to wonder how Stafford's performance will change as he edges closer to his 40th birthday, but last season was proof of his sustained excellence. He completed 65.8 percent of his passes for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns. Stafford's arm is not spring-loaded like it once was, but he can still throw from different angles and attack a variety of coverages with the mental acuity of a nuclear physicist. Despite declining mobility, Stafford found ways to get the ball out quickly and to punish blitzes while operating behind a leaky offensive line.
If the Raiders can put more quality pass-catchers around Stafford, while also anticipating a sophomore leap from fellow UGA product Brock Bowers, there's no reason to think Las Vegas can't improve its place in the AFC West standings rather substantially. How sustainable is it? Not very, but Stafford is a nice short-term boon, at the very least.