Now through his third season, Rams running back Kyren Williams is eligible for a contract extension.
General Manager Les Snead told reporters at the annual league meeting on Monday that he’d like to see that happen.
The Rams have met with Williams’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, in Florida over the last few days. While the two sides don’t appear close to a deal yet, Los Angeles would like one to come to fruition.
“[W]e would definitely like to engineer a long-term partnership with Kyren,” Snead said, via Stu Jackson of the team’s website. “Kyren’s a great human, we all want this to work out. It’s just, can we agree upon a contract where we both feel like [it] is a win-win moving forward?
“And if it doesn’t happen this year, it doesn’t mean that Kyren’s not going to be a part [of the Rams] next year. It doesn’t mean we don’t do something a year from now.”
A fifth-round pick in 2022, Williams has become one of the NFL’s most productive backs over the last two years. He rushed for 1,144 yards with 12 touchdowns in 12 games in 2023 — leading the league with 95.3 yards per game. He then tallied 1,299 yards with 14 touchdowns in 2024, adding 34 catches for 182 yards with two TDs.
He also had 182 yards on 35 carries plus four receptions for 15 yards with a TD in two postseason games.
Williams has one more year on his rookie contract and is currently slated to become an unrestricted free agent next March.
More than a month ago, the Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford struck a deal on a new contract for 2025.
The contract has not yet been signed.
“We sent it to [agent] Jimmy Sexton this week and so I think it’s just semantics,” coach Sean McVay told PFT Live on Monday. “I don’t know if they’ve officially signed that or not. But unless he has a change of heart, it’s — semantically, it is done.”
McVay added that, when it’s done, it will reveal the true compromise the two sides reached.
“It’s gonna be a great representation of the selflessness of Matthew Stafford, the ability for us to be able to say, ‘All right, we had some hard conversations but we were able to come to a collaboration and understanding of, Hey, we love you. We want you here. This is how we’re able to build the right team around you but also make you feel appreciated.’ And he did, you know he made some sacrifices to continue to stay with us and for that I’m damn grateful.”
Stafford is currently due to make $27 million in 2025. That’s the number that will remain on the books until the new contract is signed.
The NFL announced the expansion of its Global Markets Program, adding four new NFL teams and two new markets.
The Ravens, Packers, Chargers and Commanders are the new teams to gain international marketing rights in other countries. The Ravens were granted rights in the United Kingdom, the Packers in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, the Chargers in Greece and the Commanders in the United Arab Emirates.
Greece and the United Arab Emirates are the new markets for 2025.
The Rams and 49ers, along with the Commanders, now have international marketing rights in the United Arab Emirates.
The NFL is interested in the possibility of playing a regular-season game in Abu Dhabi.
“We don’t know the timing, and it’s really an ‘if’ in terms of whether we’ll play a game there,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president, club business, major events and international. “But I will say is that’s a market where there’s strong interest in our game, strong interest in growing our game on a year-round basis. I think that’s why you see three clubs raising their hands with interest there. It’s a market we’ll continue to explore. We’ve done some exploratory trips there to understand the viability of the potential for a regular-season game in the market. We have more work to go there in terms of what that looks like over this next stretch. But obviously an important market and one that has hosted significant events in other sports in recent years whether that’s NBA or global soccer. There are learnings there, but we really do it as we try to do all these markets in the right, thoughtful cadence way.”
In total, 29 clubs will participate in the global markets program across 21 international markets — up from 25 clubs across 19 markets in 2024 — as the NFL continues to prioritize global growth.
The NFL will play seven games outside the country in 2025 and could expand in 2026.
When the NFL suspended Rams wide receiver Drake Stoops two games for violating the league policy on performance-enhancing substances, the NFL announcement did not say what substance Stoops took. Stoops says it was Adderall.
Stoops said he took the medication to help him stay awake while driving. He acknowledged that he did not have a therapeutic use exemptions, which is required of players who take Adderall and some other prescription medications that are on the banned substance list.
“It was just an honest mistake,” Stoops told the Oklahoman. “It’s not steroids or anything like that, and I would never try to gain an unfair advantage or cheat the game or the process in any way like that.”
Several NFL players have been suspended for taking Adderall, which is a trade name for a stimulant used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.
Stoops said he appreciates how the Rams have handled the matter.
“When I reached out to the Rams, they were nothing but supportive and great about it,” Stoops said. “They’ve had my back the whole entire way and that means the world to me. So, I’m excited to have that behind me now and go forward and just put my best foot forward.”
The son of former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, Drake Stoops was generally not viewed as an NFL prospect during his six seasons at Oklahoma, but he made the Rams’ practice squad last year as an undrafted rookie and spent the whole season with the team. The suspension is a setback but won’t keep him from fighting for a roster spot this year — starting in Week Three.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua does not want a long NFL career.
Nacua, who will turn 24 in May, said on the Join The Lobby podcast that he will retire when he’s 30.
“I know I want to retire at the age of 30,” Nacua said, via USA Today. “I’m 23 right now, I’m going into Year 3 – it wouldn’t even be 10 years. It’d be maybe seven or eight. I think of Aaron Donald, to go out at the top, I think it would be super cool. But also, I want to have a big family. I want to have at least a starting five. I came from a big family so I need five boys, for sure. But also, like, I want to be able to be a part of their lives and be as active as I can with them. The injuries are something you can’t control [as] part of the game, so you never know. Hopefully, the rest of the career can go healthy, but you have shoulder surgery, you have knee surgery, you have ankle. By the time my kids could be 18, I could be barely walking if you play the game and sustain all the injuries and stuff like that, but I want to retire early.”
A 2023 fifth-round pick of the Rams, Nacua is going into his third NFL season. He’ll be 30 in his ninth NFL season. That would give him an even shorter career than Donald, who retired after 10 NFL seasons. Nacua has plenty of time to change his mind, but for now he doesn’t think he’ll be around long.
