Kevin Wildes baffled by Nick Wright’s Matthew Stafford for Tua Tagovailoa trade idea

The Los Angeles Rams should want to bring Matthew Stafford back next season, but Nick Wright thinks there’s at least one trade they should consider making first.

“I have one one-for-one quarterback trade that I would put a phone call in on,” Wright said to get the attention of Eric Mangini, Kevin Wildes and Chris Broussard Tuesday afternoon on FS1’s First Things First. “I might call Miami and say Stafford for Tua.”

Nick Wright proposes trading Stafford for Tua. 👀 pic.twitter.com/TW0HMDYaSz

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 21, 2025

Yes, Nick Wright proposed the Rams offering a Super Bowl winning quarterback who is still very much near the top of his game in Matthew Stafford, to Miami, for an undoubtedly less proven and more injury-riddled quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa. Let that trade proposal sink in for a minute. Now whatever kind of way that trade makes you feel, just know Kevin Wildes probably liked it even less.

Broussard quickly expressed uncertainty as to why the Rams would consider trading Stafford for Tagovailoa. Mangini similarly scoffed at the idea of trading a quarterback who the Rams know they can win with in Stafford, for one who is a “serious injury risk” in Tua. And somewhere, Dan Orlovsky is probably seething at the idea. Wildes, meanwhile, never said anything. He didn’t need to. His eyes said it all.

pic.twitter.com/8KbXyRGJln

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 21, 2025

But as much as Wildes’ facial expression may have intimated he thought the trade proposal was ridiculous from an NFL perspective, there was undoubtedly part of him who also recognized the genius of the proposal from a TV perspective.

Anyone can do a TV segment discussing whether Stafford will retire or comeback next season. But it takes a special type of TV mastermind to take the segment and suggest trading Stafford for Tua, while getting this type of reaction from Wildes along the way.