LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Garoppolo is considering retirement, but the Los Angeles Rams are hoping he decides to return for another season as their backup quarterback.
The Rams also have made progress on another contract restructuring with AP NFL MVP Matthew Stafford, general manager Les Snead said Tuesday.
The 34-year-old Garoppolo has been Stafford's backup for the past two seasons after spending the previous decade in New England, San Francisco — where he led the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance and two NFC title games — and Las Vegas.
Garoppolo has played only 84 snaps for the Rams, with 66 of those in the 2024-25 regular-season finale when Stafford rested. Garoppolo hasn't yet landed with another team to compete for a starting job, Snead acknowledged the quarterback is considering all of his options.
“Jimmy has always been priority No. 1 for the backup, so we’re letting him go through his process,” Snead said while speaking about the upcoming NFL draft, in which the Rams hold the 13th overall pick. “And then from there, we go to the next steps.”
Coach Sean McVay has repeatedly said over the past two years that Garoppolo should be an NFL starter, which means the Rams have always had ideas on how to proceed if Garoppolo left.
“Wanted to be able to give him his time," McVay said. "He knows that he's a really important part of what we want to do. Hopeful that the contemplation is (just) that, and that when the time is right, he'll change his mind."
McVay says the Rams have faith in third-string quarterback Stetson Bennett, the two-time national champion at Georgia who was drafted by Los Angeles in the fourth round in 2023. Bennett missed his rookie season to focus on his mental health, and he has yet to take an NFL snap in the regular season — but he has played extensively in the preseason, and he worked behind Garoppolo as the Rams' second-string quarterback while Stafford missed most of training camp last season with a back injury.
“He's improved tremendously,” McVay said of Bennett. “He's obviously done really well in the preseason games and in some of those crunch-time moments that have led to guys winning football games. But you leave the door open (for Garoppolo). I don't think you want to press. I think what you don't want to do is ever force a guy to play if, in his mind, he's ready to move on. But you don't want to minimize that if you do decide to play, let's make sure it's here with us. We have two years of a good relationship. So (retirement talk) isn't necessarily something that's new news to us. We want to give him his time, and he knows where we stand on that.”
Garoppolo hasn't played much because Stafford has been healthy enough to start all but one game over the past three seasons, and Snead confirmed the Rams are finishing up a restructuring of the veteran quarterback's contract for a third straight offseason. Stafford already squashed any retirement contemplation by announcing he would return to Los Angeles while he accepted the MVP trophy in February, and his current contract runs through 2026.
“Progress has been made,” Snead said. “No timeline, but don't expect any drama per se.”
McVay also said Puka Nacua will be a full participant in the Rams' offseason program after his recent stint in a holistic rehab center to address his erratic behavior in recent months. Nacua was spotted with his teammates when the Rams reported Monday for the start of their offseason work.
“It was great to see him,” McVay said. “He's doing really well. ... He and I have a great relationship and feel really good about kind of the direction we're going.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
FILE - Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (11) warms up prior to an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals Dec. 7, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9), quarterback Stetson Bennett IV (13) quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (11) walk onto the field for warmups before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The civil rights group faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought by the Justice Department in Alabama, where the organization is based.
The indictment came shortly after SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its program to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.
SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”
Blanche said the SPLC paid at least $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other extremist groups.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
He said the SPLC never disclosed to donors details about its informant program. “They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” he said.
Blanche said the money was passed from the center through two different bank accounts before being loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the extremist groups, which also included the National Socialist Movement and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
The SPLC's Fair said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.
“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”
The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.
The investigation could add to concerns that Trump's Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.
The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.
The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - Tourists walk past a banner with President Donald Trump hanging on the Department of Justice, Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)
