After 12 season, the Matthew Stafford era in Detroit will come to an end. According to a report by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Stafford and the Lions met over the weekend to discuss his future, and during that meeting, both sides agreed that it is best for the franchise and the former No. 1 overall pick to part ways.
“The sides have had open and healthy discussions since the season ended,” Pelissero reports. “But with the Lions starting over again, hiring Dan Campbell as head coach and Brad Holmes as general manager, Stafford told the team he feels it’s the right time to move on and team officials agreed, per sources.”
The news was confirmed by Adam Schefter of ESPN.
And this from Detroit: pic.twitter.com/M0L46PzCw2
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 23, 2021
The Lions took Stafford as the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft out of the University of Georgia. The team made the playoffs three times with Stafford under center, and while there hadn’t been gobs of success during his tenure in the Motor City, he always managed to put up big numbers when he was healthy, throwing for more than 45,000 yards and 282 touchdowns in his tenure. Last season, the soon-to-be 33-year-old completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 4,084 yards with 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
As for which teams can use him, Stafford presents an interesting backup plan in the event squads want to make a move for a quarterback this offseason but do not want to fork over everything that the Houston Texans would theoretically want for Deshaun Watson. He’s also someone who can step in and act as a bridge for a few years for a franchise that has an eye on a long-term option under center. On the other side of things, the Lions possess the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and while they will not be able to acquire Trevor Lawrence, they could hold out hope that at least one of the players in the next class of signal callers — Ohio State’s Justin Fields, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, BYU’s Zach Wilson — will be there for the taking, should they opt to go in that direction.