All posts by : Don Lichterman

‘Matthew Stafford is not retiring This year’ – Donald Edward Lichterman.

Let’s clear the noise out yet again right now in writing.

‘Matthew Stafford is not retiring This year’ – Donald Edward Lichterman.

Not this year or anytime soon. Not quietly. Not “we’ll see how he feels.” Not after the season he just delivered and not after dragging this roster within one game of the Super Bowl. The league can keep pretending the conversation is delicate, and the coaching staff can stay diplomatic all they want — but from a football standpoint, there is nothing ambiguous here.

Stafford is your quarterback in 2026. Full stop!

Oh and did I mention that he won the MVP this season?

The entire direction of this offseason, the draft, and the coaching rebuild only makes sense if the Rams treat this as what it truly is: a short-window, all-in championship push built around an elite veteran quarterback who just produced one of the best seasons of his career.

Following the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl LX victory earlier this week, the 2026 NFL draft order is set. The Rams hold two first-round selections (No. 13 and No. 29) and are widely expected to use this capital to address a secondary that “sucks ass” and a right tackle vacancy following Rob Havenstein’s retirement.

My Round 1 Breakdown and FYI, I am not adding images of projected players since so much can change in two months. However, this is where I am at today in writing which is still angry BTW:

Pick Prospect Pos School Analysis

No. 13 Jermod McCoy CB Tennessee: A “pedigree” pick to overhaul the secondary. Despite a 2025 ACL injury, his 2024 tape is elite.

Alt 13 Spencer Fano OT Utah: Ranked as a top-two OT by Mel Kiper. He is viewed as the “most pro-ready” tackle to replace Havenstein.

No. 29 Colton Hood CB Tennessee: A “complete player” who excelled at the Senior Bowl. This would give the Rams a “double-dip” in the secondary.

Alt 29 Monroe Freeling OT Georgia: A “major riser” with ideal size (6’7”) who could start at left or right tackle.

Strategic Trends for 2026

• The “Coach Hunter” Connection: The Rams’ expected hiring of Michael Hunter from Tennessee has fueled rumors of a “Vols-to-Rams” pipeline for CBs Jermod McCoy and Colton Hood.
• Matthew Stafford’s Successor: While Stafford is returning, mock drafts now project the Rams taking a “mid-round developmental” QB. Drew Allar (Penn State) is a frequent target at No. 93 to learn under Stafford for a year.
• Right Tackle Pivot: While some analysts suggest Warren McClendon is the internal heir, mock drafts increasingly favor early-round talent like Spencer Fano or Gennings Dunker to ensure protection for the 38-year-old Stafford.
• Defensive Versatility: At No. 29, the Rams are also linked to Ahkeem Mesidor (Miami), a “powerful” edge rusher who can slide inside to help if the team cannot pay upcoming free agents like Byron Young.

And after watching what Seattle’s defense turned into down the stretch — and how that unit ultimately helped carry the Seahawks to a Super Bowl LX title — the blueprint for the Rams could not be clearer.

This team needs defense.
This team needs corners.
This team needs protection up front.

Everything else is secondary right now and honestly, we can score great talent in that regard in the Draft. That way if something comes up on Trade Block, we can attain above the basic need today.

The Rams officially enter the 2026 offseason coming off a deep playoff run that ended in the NFC Championship Game against Seattle, and the front office now controls one of the most valuable draft positions in the entire league: two first-round picks. Let alone one early pick.

That kind of capital is not for luxury selections. It is for roster surgery.

And the surgery needs to start in the secondary.

The 2026 NFL Draft order is set, and the Rams hold picks No. 13 and No. 29 overall. For a team that believes — correctly — that it can win immediately, those two selections may in part define the remainder of the Stafford era.

FYI, the 2026 NFL Draft is scheduled to take place from Thursday, April 23, to Saturday, April 25, 2026. For the first time ever, the event will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the main stage and Draft Theater located on the North Shore near Acrisure Stadium.

2026 NFL Draft Schedule

• Thursday, April 23: Round 1 (Starts at 8 p.m. ET).
• Friday, April 24: Rounds 2-3 (Starts at 7 p.m. ET).
• Saturday, April 25: Rounds 4-7 (Starts at 12 p.m. ET).

Official First-Round Draft Order

The draft order was finalized following the Seattle Seahawks’ 29–13 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX. Four teams—the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, and Jacksonville Jaguars—do not currently own a first-round pick due to prior trades.

Pick Team Notes
1 Las Vegas Raiders Finished 3-14; holds pick via tiebreaker.
2 New York Jets Holds two picks in the top 16.
3 Arizona Cardinals
4 Tennessee Titans
5 New York Giants
6 Cleveland Browns
7 Washington Commanders
8 New Orleans Saints
9 Kansas City Chiefs
10 Cincinnati Bengals
11 Miami Dolphins
12 Dallas Cowboys
13 Los Angeles Rams Acquired from Atlanta Falcons.
14 Baltimore Ravens
15 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
16 New York Jets Acquired from Indianapolis Colts.
17 Detroit Lions
18 Minnesota Vikings
19 Carolina Panthers
20 Dallas Cowboys Acquired from Green Bay Packers (Micah Parsons trade).
21 Pittsburgh Steelers Host team for the draft.
22 Los Angeles Chargers
23 Philadelphia Eagles
24 Cleveland Browns Acquired from Jacksonville Jaguars.
25 Chicago Bears
26 Buffalo Bills
27 San Francisco 49ers
28 Houston Texans
29 Los Angeles Rams Team’s original pick.
30 Denver Broncos AFC runner-up.
31 New England Patriots Super Bowl LX runner-up.
32 Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl LX Champions.

Key Rule Changes and Events

• Draft Timing: For 2026, the time between first-round selections has been shortened from 10 minutes to eight minutes. This is the first timing adjustment for the draft since 2008.
• Draft Experience: A free fan festival, the NFL Draft Experience, will be held at Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh. Fans must register through the NFL OnePass app to attend.
• Draft Order Tiebreakers: The first tiebreaker for teams with the same record is strength of schedule; the team with the easier schedule receives the higher pick. For subsequent rounds, teams with identical records will rotate positions.

The defensive backfield simply did not hold up consistently in 2025. Injuries, depth issues, and unreliable coverage turned too many late-season games into survival drills. It is evident that we peaked in Week 10 this year and again, the tape does not lie. The Rams were forced to scheme around coverage problems instead of dictating to opposing quarterbacks.

That cannot continue.

At No. 13 overall, one of the cleanest fits on the board is Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy. Even with the ACL injury he suffered in 2025, his 2024 film remains elite. The ball skills, the movement traits, the confidence at the catch point — this is exactly the type of high-ceiling, tone-setting defensive back that changes how a coordinator calls games.

If the Rams want a pedigree player to anchor the secondary for the next five years, this is the type of swing you take.

However, there is another reality sitting directly beside that pick.

Rob Havenstein is officially gone which is a shame.

His retirement officially closes one of the longest and most stable chapters on the Rams’ offensive line. Eleven seasons. One hundred sixty-one starts. A Super Bowl Championship ring. And now a very real hole at right tackle protecting a quarterback who will turn 38 during the 2026 season.

That is not an optional fix.

OMG. I’m shaking my head over that so-called D.J. Humphries experiment. Calling it a “debacle” is an understatement for most Rams aficionados. I guess enough time has passed since the last loss that I can officially talk about the Rams again.

The frustration with Humphries this season boiled down to a few major issues that made his time in LA particularly rough:

• The “Turnstile” Effect: Signed as veteran insurance after his long stint with the Arizona Cardinals, Humphries looked like he had “lost a step” (or three). He struggled immensely with speed rushers, leading to several critical sacks on Matthew Stafford that stalled drives in big games.
• The Penalty Problem: When he couldn’t keep up physically, he often resorted to holding let alone trying to start before the play started. He became a magnet for yellow flags at the worst possible times—negating big gains and putting the offense in “1st and 20” holes they couldn’t dig out of.
• Health and Age: Coming off a major ACL injury from his final year in Arizona, the 32-year-old never regained the lateral quickness needed for Sean McVay’s zone-blocking scheme.
• The “Bench” Narrative: Because the Rams were paying him to be a reliable veteran presence while younger guys were injured, his lack of production was magnified. Fans and analysts frequently pointed to him as a weak link that nearly derailed the Rams’ mid-season momentum.

With Rob Havenstein now retired and Warren McClendon Jr. taking over, the Rams are widely expected to let Humphries walk in free agency this spring rather than re-signing him.

Therefore, Utah tackle Spencer Fano is widely viewed as one of the most pro-ready offensive linemen in this entire class. He is technically sound, physically mature, and already comfortable in pass protection against NFL-caliber edge rushers. If the Rams decide the safest way to protect their franchise quarterback is to stabilize the line immediately, Fano becomes a very serious option at No. 13.

The second first-round pick at No. 29 gives Los Angeles the flexibility most contenders never get.

This is where the “double-dip” at corner becomes very realistic.

Tennessee’s Colton Hood has been one of the biggest winners of the pre-draft cycle. His Senior Bowl performance showcased a complete defensive back who can play man, zone, and handle physical receivers. Pairing Hood with McCoy would allow the Rams to rebuild their coverage group in one single night.

That is how you fix a unit.

Not with bargain veterans.
Not with mid-round projects.
With premium talent.

There is also an offensive line alternative in that range. Georgia tackle Monroe Freeling continues to rise, and his 6-foot-7 frame combined with his positional flexibility makes him attractive as a potential right tackle or long-term swing option across the line.

The Rams are not rebuilding. They are reinforcing. Remember that fact today!

One emerging storyline around the league is the growing “Vols-to-Rams” connection. The expected addition of Michael Hunter from the University of Tennessee to coach the defensive backs has only strengthened the belief that the front office is heavily tuned into that program’s pipeline. That connection could very well factor into how aggressively the Rams pursue McCoy and Hood.

The staff changes in general point directly toward a franchise preparing for a serious championship run.

Sean McVay’s coaching tree continues to be raided, and the Rams have responded by stacking experience back onto the staff. Kliff Kingsbury joins the offensive side in a senior role, providing an additional layer of quarterback development and offensive design following Mike LaFleur’s departure to Arizona.

Special teams, which quietly hurt the Rams more than most people want to admit in 2025 (I am not talking about Kickers), finally received a major upgrade with the hiring of Bubba Ventrone. Field position and discipline matter in January football. The Rams learned that the hard way.

And defensively, the anticipated hiring of Michael Hunter signals a direct attempt to stabilize and modernize the secondary room — a group that simply did not survive the grind of last season intact.

This is not cosmetic.

This is structural.

At the top of the organization, stability remains intact. Both McVay and general manager Les Snead signed multi-year extensions earlier this month, eliminating any outside speculation about philosophical shifts. The direction is locked in.

Win now.

That message only became louder when Stafford officially put the retirement chatter to rest while accepting the NFL’s MVP award on February 5.

The numbers alone justify it.

4,707 passing yards.
46 touchdowns.
An offense that ranked among the most explosive units in the league.

Stafford will earn $40 million in 2026, and that salary becomes fully guaranteed on March 15. League insiders already expect discussions around a short-term contract adjustment to begin this spring. The market has moved. Stafford has proven — again — that he still belongs at the top of it.

Which brings us back to the real conversation the Rams should be having.

Who is protecting him?

And who is covering on the back end when the Rams are forced to throw with the lead?

The quarterback of the future discussion is already quietly being handled. Multiple projections have the Rams targeting a mid-round developmental passer — with Penn State’s Drew Allar frequently linked around pick No. 93 — to sit behind Stafford for a season.

That makes sense.

What does not make sense is using premium capital to chase a replacement when your current quarterback just won league MVP.

The priority is protection and coverage.

The other layer of roster pressure sits on the edge of the defense. With future contract questions surrounding players like Byron Young, the Rams could also look to add a versatile front defender late in the first round. Miami edge rusher Ahkeem Mesidor fits that mold perfectly — powerful at the point of attack and capable of sliding inside on passing downs. That flexibility matters when cap decisions are looming.

The Rams Are Also Taking the Rivalry Global — and the 49ers Are Coming With Them

One final note that should not be overlooked in the context of this franchise’s trajectory: the Rams will be the designated team for the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia in 2026, scheduled for Melbourne.

We lose a so-called home game, but let’s be real — almost every regular-season game in Los Angeles is filled with fans from other cities traveling in, so who really cares (even though 49ers games do sell a lot of tickets).

And LA fans, please don’t take offense — I grew up watching the Rams play at the LA Coliseum, where games hardly ever sold out. That’s why it was always so hard to watch them on TV as a kid, since back then only sold-out games were broadcast.

Anyway, I love being able to play there.

Global stage.
International spotlight.
A franchise that now represents the league beyond North America.
And, being the first to do it.

That is why this week’s Rams news isn’t about a depth chart tweak or a midweek injury report and that boring stuff that I had to finally get out of my head (which for me is to write about it or broadcast it on the radio). It’s about the Los Angeles Rams officially stepping onto the biggest international stage the franchise has ever seen — and doing it against the one opponent that always makes everything louder.

The Rams will host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia in 2026, and the setting could not be more massive. Speaking of the Coliseum today, the game will be played at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground, a venue that regularly holds crowds well north of 90,000 and sits at the heart of Australian sport.

From a Rams perspective, this is not just another “international game.”
This is a statement game.
This is a positioning move.
This is the league formally placing the Rams at the center of its next global expansion push.

Just likewe did in Mexico! I mean Arizona. Too Soon?

Jokes aside, the opponent is no accident.

If the NFL wanted to introduce Australian fans to real NFC West football culture — not a neutral, low-stakes matchup — it could not have picked a better pairing than Rams versus 49ers.

That rivalry travels, and it is truly age-old. I was actually threatened at Candlestick Park because of my resting-bitch-face and because I was a Rams fan who had to remind one 49ers fan how the Rams dominated that series in the 1970s and 1980s, after he claimed the Niners “owned” the Rams during the 1990s.

It carries history, bitterness, playoff consequences, and fan bases that already follow the league aggressively across borders.

Now it’s going truly global.

The Rams will serve as the home team for the matchup, reinforcing the organization’s role as one of the league’s designated international growth franchises. In doing this article, I find out that the Los Angeles currently holds official marketing rights in Australia under the NFL’s Global Markets Program, a long-term initiative designed to allow teams to build year-round relationships with international fans, sponsors, and media partners.

This isn’t a one-off event.

It’s part of a multi-year commitment to the region.

The league confirmed the Australia game will be included in a record-setting slate of nine international games scheduled for the 2026 season — the largest global schedule in NFL history.

For the Rams, that matters more than the headline itself.

Because this isn’t simply about exporting a game.

It’s about exporting the brand.

The Rams have quietly become one of the NFL’s most internationally aggressive organizations, and this matchup is the natural extension of that strategy. I assume because there hardly any home town fans, why not go abroad? From digital content, community engagement, local partnerships, and fan outreach programs, the Rams have spent multiple seasons laying the groundwork in Australia.

I kid about the Rams doing this for the money first and the history-driven brand second — but now comes the payoff.

The venue alone makes this event historic.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the most iconic sporting arenas on the planet. It has hosted Olympic Games, Cricket World Cups, Australian rules football grand finals, and international soccer showcases. An NFL regular-season game inside the MCG immediately elevates the league’s presence in the region in a way a smaller stadium simply could not.

For American audiences, the scheduling adds another fascinating layer.

Because of the time difference between Melbourne and the United States, the game is expected to be played as a daytime kickoff in Australia while serving as a prime-time television window back home. That creates a rare global broadcast window where live NFL football can dominate two continents in a single broadcast cycle.

From a league operations standpoint, this is exactly what international expansion is supposed to look like.

From a Rams standpoint, it places the franchise directly at the center of that growth.

But the football side of this announcement should not get lost.

This is not a neutral site exhibition.

This is a divisional game.

Every tiebreaker still counts.
Every playoff scenario still applies.
Every injury risk and travel complication still matters.

The Rams are technically the home team — but they will be playing a rival who knows them as well as any opponent in the league, on the other side of the world, in an environment no NFL roster has ever experienced during the regular season.

There is no template for this.

There is no previous Australia regular-season game to study.

Both teams will be navigating unfamiliar logistics, international recovery schedules, media obligations, and travel fatigue. The competitive edge will belong to whichever organization handles preparation better — not just on the field, but behind the scenes.

And that is where this announcement quietly reinforces something important about the current Rams organization.

This franchise is built for complexity.

Between recent international games in Europe, compressed travel windows, and high-profile media demands, the Rams have already proven they can manage high-visibility environments without allowing operational distractions to bleed into performance.

That matters in a setting like Melbourne.

This is not just a long flight.
This is a full international roadshow.

For the 49ers, it is a rivalry game in unfamiliar territory.

For the Rams, it is a home game in a new market they are actively trying to own.

That distinction matters.

The Global Markets Program exists to give teams true local relevance abroad, not just logo placement. The Rams’ presence in Australia — through youth initiatives, fan events, and regional marketing — now converts directly into competitive and commercial leverage.

This game becomes a centerpiece of that strategy.

And let’s be honest — the optics are powerful.

A West Coast rivalry, played in the Southern Hemisphere, inside one of the world’s most recognizable stadiums, at a time when the league is openly accelerating international growth.

If you are building a global identity for a franchise, this is how you do it.

For Rams fans, there is another layer of pride here as well.

The NFL did not assign this responsibility randomly.

The league selected the Rams to represent its brand in Australia because the organization already fits the global profile the league wants to showcase — modern facilities, recognizable star power, media polish, and a front office that understands how to operate on an international scale.

This is organizational trust.

This is strategic positioning.

And this is opportunity.

Because once you become the anchor franchise in a new market, the benefits extend well beyond a single game. International sponsorships, long-term fan development, and future scheduling considerations all grow out of moments like this.

From a competitive standpoint, the Rams will need to treat this game like any other high-leverage divisional matchup — because that is exactly what it is. But from a franchise standpoint, the 2026 Australia game is far bigger than one Sunday on the schedule.

It is the Rams planting their flag in a new continent.

And doing it against the 49ers — of all teams — only makes the moment sharper.

On The Rampage, this one isn’t just about where the Rams will play.

It’s about where the Rams are headed.

That moment only matters if the product on the field matches the ambition off it.

This offseason is not about marketing. It is about margins.

It is about turning a flawed secondary into a weapon.
It is about replacing a franchise right tackle without letting the offense regress.
It is about giving an MVP quarterback one more properly built runway.

Matthew Stafford is not walking away.

The Rams shouldn’t walk away from what this moment demands either.

The original Post on Substack.