Brady eventually bolted for sunnier shores in Tampa, but Stafford decided to make things work with the Rams, agreeing to a revised contract Friday afternoon that surely will be a nice upgrade from his salary of $27 million.

If Stafford’s flirtation with the Raiders and Giants was just about lighting a fire under the Rams, then good for him. He’s still unquestionably a top-10 NFL quarterback, yet was getting paid less than half the going rate of $55 million-$60 million. Stafford took a team-friendly deal in 2022, and was looking for one last big payday.

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It would have been lunacy from a football standpoint to leave the Rams for either of those teams. Stafford has a perfect situation in Los Angeles, playing for the best offensive coach in Sean McVay, in a dome in LA, with one of the best receivers in Puka Nacua, and with a bright young defense that should have the Rams in contention next season.

Neither the Raiders nor the Giants are close to being Super Bowl contenders, and asking for a trade to either team would have amounted to Stafford chasing money instead of a ring. Which, at 37 years old, and having made $364 million in on-field earnings, would have been a tough look.

Common sense prevailed, and the rest of the league can move on to Plan B at quarterback. The buzz from the NFL Combine this past week in Indianapolis:

▪ Sam Darnold is the top quarterback available, and the Raiders are the obvious landing spot. But if the report from The Athletic is true — that the Raiders don’t want to spend big money on a veteran other than Stafford — then it’s harder for Darnold to find a team.

The Vikings don’t want to splurge on Darnold and seem prepared to hand the team over to J.J. McCarthy. The Jets are out, and it doesn’t seem Darnold would want to return to MetLife Stadium with the Giants. The Browns, paying Deshaun Watson $46 million not to play, need an inexpensive quarterback. The Saints have said they’re sticking with Derek Carr.

If not the Raiders, it appears Darnold’s best landing spots would be in Tennessee, or returning to Minnesota on a short-term deal.

▪ A 2024 Patriots assistant coach who has since been fired takes issue with the idea that Darnold is the No. 2 quarterback available behind Stafford. This coach thinks it’s the Patriots’ Joe Milton.

“If you’re the Raiders, why not trade a third-round pick for Milton?” the coach said.

It makes a lot of sense. Considering Milton is making $960,000 this year, it would be a low-commitment, high-reward trade. It’s a lot cheaper than paying Darnold $35 million or Russell Wilson $20 million. And after using a sixth-round pick on Milton last season, the Patriots probably would be happy to cash him in for a third-rounder a year later.

▪ The Giants, who only have exclusive rights free agent Tommy DeVito under control next year, are so desperate at quarterback (and to win) that they’re considering Aaron Rodgers. It’s shaping up to be either Rodgers, Wilson, or Kirk Cousins in Gotham, plus a rookie.

▪ The Falcons maintain that Cousins will be their backup behind Michael Penix in 2025. But the Falcons must be trying to create leverage — either by drumming up a trade market for Cousins, or to pressure Cousins to take a pay cut to grant him his release.

The Falcons owe Cousins $27.5 million fully guaranteed in 2025, and the expectation is they will release him to put all their support behind Penix. But if the Falcons want to play hardball, they can threaten to squat on Cousins’s rights all year unless he takes a pay cut. He may have to accept it if he wants to leave Atlanta.

Despite his age, injury history and poor performance in 2024, Cousins should have options to start in 2025 because he should be cheap for a new team, a la Wilson last year, who got $37 million from the Broncos and $1 million from the Steelers.

▪ The Colts are in a pickle. They used the No. 4 pick on Anthony Richardson two years ago and still want him to work out, but they were frustrated by his poor sophomore season and are creating the impression that Richardson is competing for his job this offseason.

“It’s got to be the right guy to create real competition,” GM Chris Ballard said. “But we want to create real competition.”

Finding it won’t be easy — Darnold, Wilson, or any other QB who wants to start won’t sign up for a competition. But after Joe Flacco struggled last season, don’t be surprised if the Colts sign another seasoned backup, such as Daniel Jones, Jacoby Brissett or Jarrett Stidham.

The Colts are trying to create real competition for quarterback Anthony Richardson.Andy Lyons/Getty

Combine buzz

Bengals may be able to keep all top talent

A few other developments from the 50-plus head coaches and general managers who spoke last week at the NFL Combine:

▪ Teams hoping to pick off some of the Bengals’ top talent may be disappointed, as it sounds as if they’re trying to retain all three of their star players.

Receiver Ja’Marr Chase, entering the final year of his contract at $21.8 million, is “going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league,” de facto GM Duke Tobin said, surpassing Justin Jefferson’s $35 million per year.

The Bengals also want to keep receiver Tee Higgins in the fold, even if it means using the franchise tag for $26.2 million as a starting point on a long-term deal. The one guy to potentially shake free is pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, set to make $15.8 million this year, but the Bengals eventually could give him a pay raise this summer. The Bengals have nearly $60 million in salary cap space and are only 21st in cash spending for 2025 ($185 million).

“We are fortunate to be in a position to where we can fit them all in,” Tobin said.

▪ The Falcons finished 31st or 32nd in sacks in three of the past four years, and haven’t ranked higher than 18th in points allowed in seven years. So it’s pretty easy to guess which side of the ball they are focusing on.

The Falcons only sent their defensive coaches to the combine, and used all 45 of their interviews on defensive players, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“This draft is loaded defensively,” Falcons GM Terry Fontenot said.

▪ The NFL Combine is increasingly becoming an event for scouts but not coaches. The 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan, Rams’ Sean McVay, and Packers’ Matt LaFleur once again skipped the combine. The Patriots sent Mike Vrabel and their special teams coaches, but their offensive and defensive coaches stayed in Foxborough.

Eliot Wolf says the Patriots will be a landing spot for free agents this offseason. Senior NFL writer Ben Volin agrees.

Patriots buzz

A few other notes from combine

▪ The Patriots introduced Mike Vrabel Jan. 13 and officially hired Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator Jan. 25, but they had been in contact for a lot longer than two weeks. Since Vrabel was just a consultant for the Browns in 2024, and McDaniels was unemployed, they were in contact throughout the season.

“He wasn’t under contract with a team, so we had numerous conversations,” Vrabel said.

▪ Receiver Ja’Lynn Polk was mostly invisible as a rookie, finishing with only 87 yards and making just three catches over the Patriots’ final 11 games.

“I think organizationally, we maybe put too much on his plate early, and I think that really kind of stunted his growth a little bit,” said de facto GM Eliot Wolf.

One of Polk’s coaches from last season said he still believes Polk can develop into an NFL contributor, but has doubts Polk will live up to the expectations of being a 37th pick.

The receiver that last year’s coaching staff really liked from a physical standpoint was fourth-round pick Javon Baker, but he only played 90 snaps because the coaches couldn’t rely on Baker to line up correctly and run the right routes.

▪ The former Patriots assistant said he was surprised that almost everyone got fired after one year, because the message from the Krafts on down since the beginning of the season was that the Patriots were facing a three-year rebuild. Jerod Mayo’s message to the staff was that he was going to make some mistakes during his first year, but they had the support of ownership and were all going to grow together. But once the Patriots got blown out by the Chargers in Week 17, the coaches started to see the writing on the wall.

The former assistant said Mayo was “great” to work for and “did right by us,” meaning he let everyone do their job without micromanaging, and respected everyone’s time.

▪ The Patriots still owe former offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt two years and a little less than $6 million, per a league source. The assistant coaches who were let go still have one year left on their contracts. A few coaches were given the opportunity to re-interview for a job on Mike Vrabel’s staff — he kept the special teams coaches — but most weren’t.

The Commanders were powerless to stop Jalen Hurts (center) and the rush push during the NFC Championship game.Chris Szagola/Associated Press

Banning tush push?

Injury risk more theoretical than tangible

The Packers likely are going to recommend a rule change to NFL owners next month to ban the “tush push.” The play is aesthetically ugly, and it looks dangerous, with players slamming into each other and using their bodies as human shields.

The only problem — the injury risk is more theoretical than tangible. The NFL said this week that it has not documented any injuries from the tush push, and even if there were, the play isn’t utilized enough during the regular season to have meaningful injury statistics.

Banning it would be tantamount to penalizing the Eagles, because they are the only team that uses the play so often, and so effectively. The Bills tried to use it in the playoffs against the Chiefs and got stuffed four out of five times. If the proposal makes it to the floor, the owners will vote on it next month in Palm Beach, Fla., with 24 of 32 needed to pass a rule.

“Just because you can’t stop the play, is that something that you have to take out of the game?” Texans GM Nick Caserio said. “At some point, the onus is on [us to] figure out a way.”

But 49ers GM John Lynch said he’s worried that keeping the tush push could lead to fights or other injuries that have not been documented yet.

“I think back to my playing days, and I think that might have made me do things that I wouldn’t be proud of because, ‘If they aren’t going to stop it, I’ll stop it,’ ” said Lynch, a Hall of Fame safety. “There is a fear that something serious could happen on that play because of the dynamics of it. I think part of everyone involved is to make tough decisions before that ever happens.”

Lions coach took his time

Campbell was thorough interviewing candidates

The Lions lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs, plus several assistant coaches to promotions. Head coach Dan Campbell took his time in filling out his new staff, which resulted in John Morton as his new offensive coordinator and Kelvin Sheppard promoted to defensive coordinator.

“This was kind of the Phase 2, the reload [of] the coordinators and different position coaches, so I wanted to take my time and do it right,” said Campbell, entering his fifth season with the Lions. “I did a lot of interviews. A lot. Really sat them down, got to know them, kind of figured them out a little bit. The football is there, but it’s really about the mesh, the chemistry. I’m big on that.”

How many interviews did Campbell ultimately conduct?

“I know 24. Somebody told me it was 26. But a lot,” he said.

The NFL announced a salary cap of $279.2 million per team in 2025, meaning the cap increased more over the last five seasons ($81 million) than it did over the previous 10 ($77.8 million). The addition of a 17th regular-season game and two playoff games, plus new broadcast deals from streaming services (Amazon, YouTube) and the legalization of sports gambling has the NFL awash in cash … It’s admirable that Colorado’s Travis Hunter wants to play receiver and cornerback full time in the NFL, but he’ll never make it to a second contract that way. Playing 120 snaps per game is the surest way to get hurt. He should focus on wide receiver and moonlight at cornerback … The Chiefs named All-Pro guard Joe Thuney their team MVP in part for his unselfish move to left tackle at the end of the season. “Joe’s a natural guard/center,” Andy Reid said. “By the graciousness of his heart, he stepped out and played tackle for us, and what a job he did.” … Bad news for Ravens kicker Justin Tucker: The NFL is investigating him for sexual misconduct after being accused by 16 massage therapists, and the Ravens are checking out new kickers this offseason. “The amount of allegations are serious and concerning,” Ravens GM Eric DeCosta said … Sean Payton, who turned 61 in December, is the youngest coach in the AFC West. Jim Harbaugh is six days older, Reid turns 67 next month, and new Raiders coach Pete Carroll is 73. “Thanks, Pete,” Payton said … The Browns, who hold pick Nos. 2 and 33, are likely to pick inside the top 50 for the first time since 2021, thanks to the Deshaun Watson trade. Their highest pick the last three years was defensive tackle Michael Hall at No. 54 last year … The Buccaneers announced that Jon Gruden will be reinstated to the team’s ring of honor, after being taken down in the wake of his email scandal in 2021. Gruden has been getting buzz as a head coaching candidate the last couple of years, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s back as soon as next year … Brady isn’t at the Raiders’ facility much, but Carroll said Brady is “available every day … He’s really clear in his vision that he has for how he would hope to see this go and how he would like to influence it wherever he can. There is no mistake in that at all. I’m proud to represent him the way he sees it, the way he feels about it, and I’m looking forward to making him feel real proud of what he’s all about.”

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.