How Committed to Matthew Stafford Are Detroit Lions?
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Since 2011, the man under center for the Lions has not been under question. It’s been Matthew Stafford, and he will be the franchise quarterback in Motown for the foreseeable future.
How “married” are the Lions actually to Stafford, though?
ESPN's Dan Graziano took a look at how committed each NFL franchise is to their respective starting quarterback, and placed the Lions at No. 27, meaning they aren’t overly married to Stafford.
As Graziano explains,
“The Lions are paying Stafford $15 million this year and nothing is guaranteed after that. In fact, as of the restructure Stafford did in December, $7.2 million of that $15 million is now an option bonus tied to a 2023 option on his contract, and the Lions have until the day before their first game of the 2020 regular season to decide whether to exercise it. If they don’t exercise it, that $7.2 million gets added to his 2020 salary, so he gets the $15 million either way. And the 2023 year voids no matter what, so this is just a salary-cap manipulation move.
He doesn't envision the Lions trading Stafford, though.
Graziano said, "They’ve said they aren’t, publicly and privately, and I believe he will be their quarterback in 2020. But this is simply an exercise in ranking contract flexibility. And the fact the Lions have three more months to pay that bonus moves Stafford down just a bit behind others in his tier. Even if he does play the entire 2020 season for them, the Lions can get out of his deal next offseason with a $19 million dead-money charge and no more guaranteed salary owed.”
Let’s go in the "wayback machine" now to when the Lions drafted Stafford in 2009.
In this 2009 article from ESPN, then-Detroit general manager Martin Mayhew had a plan in place for his new quarterback.
"Now, it's up to us to develop him and get good players around him," Mayhew said.
With just three playoff appearances and no postseason wins for Stafford, it seems the plan that Mayhew set back then has failed to come to fruition.
The question that now exists is how invested are the Lions in Stafford 11 years later.
Let’s take a look at what current Lions general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia recently had to say about the status of Stafford in Detroit.
In an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show”, Patricia responded to the fact that Stafford’s metro Detroit home is up for sale.
“I definitely do not read into the real estate market unless it's my house," Patricia said. "...I think the word I used was laughable. From my standpoint—Matthew Stafford and I—I just couldn't be more happy, more blessed, to be in a situation where he's our quarterback.”
In a piece written by the Detroit Free Press in February, what Quinn told Stafford when trade rumors surfaced earlier this year was highlighted.
"I called Matthew and I said, 'Listen, I haven’t had one conversation. I’m not trying to — we’re not trading you. Period,'" Quinn said. "And he was great. He was like, 'Yeah, I don’t want to go anywhere.'"
From the outside looking in, it appears as if both Stafford and the Lions are 100 percent invested in each other.
However, we already know that Quinn and Patricia are walking on a tightrope, with the mandate from ownership to turn the Lions into playoff contenders in 2020.
"We expect to be a playoff contender, and those are our expectations, which we’ve expressed to both Bob and to Matt," team owner Martha Ford said in an open letter to Lions fans late last year.
What happens if the Lions have another losing season in 2020 and do not meet the expectations of ownership?
We can assume that Quinn and Patricia will be gone. But, will the subsequent new regime then look to find a replacement for Stafford?
Time will tell.
It is safe to say that as long as the Lions have a productive and winning season in 2020, the marriage between Stafford and the Lions will remain strong.
If the season heads a different way, though, there could be a new man under center donning that Honolulu Blue come 2021.
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