Why the Lions won’t trade Matthew Stafford despite rumors suggesting they will
A nearby news station in Detroit, WDIV-Television, introduced a report Wednesday night time citing sources boasting “that trade talks regarding quarterback Matthew Stafford have been underway for a pair of weeks.”
The report lacks substance it only says the sources are “close to the Detroit Lions.” It also came the similar working day Stafford’s wife, Kelly, shared a pair of tales on her Instagram account that instructed the Lions would trade their longtime quarterback.
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There was almost nothing genuinely to spark individuals tales that Kelly Stafford shared. The only report suggesting a Stafford trade is the a single from WDIV.
In simple fact, Thursday early morning the Detroit Cost-free Push asked Lions GM Bob Quinn about the rumors and he responded, by means of textual content, “a hundred% Fake!!” But normal professionals aren’t exactly reputable all the time, so you can only get into that relatively.
The genuine explanation why the Lions is not going to trade Stafford has to do with a conclusion the staff designed in December. The Lions turned a $6 million roster bonus that was initially due in March and converted it into a signing bonus. This implies the Lions would suffer a $32 million hit in lifeless income cap with a Stafford trade.
Buying and selling Matthew Stafford would leave powering $32M of lifeless cap to the #Lions, a decline of $10.7M of place. Detroit has presently restructured and compensated out a $6M bonus for the year. He’s remaining set in 2020. https://t.co/4DC96J5p2k
— Spotrac (@spotrac) February thirteen, 2020
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In other terms, it would value Detroit $10.7 million for the 2020 year to trade or launch Stafford when it could just continue to keep him on the roster and not waste income. It just tends to make no sense to go Stafford until finally future year.
Possessing explained that, there’s however a probability Detroit selects a quarterback in the NFL Draft. The Lions maintain the No. 3 overall select, indicating the obvious choice would most likely be Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. It would be a terrific in shape, way too, as Tagovailoa’s agent, Leigh Steinberg, told the Detroit Cost-free Push in late January his customer would be ideal suited on a staff where by he could sit for a year.
“It requires the proper persona in the current quarterback to provide alongside the future youthful quarterback, but if you glance at Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Philip Rivers, none of them started the very first year and my want for Tua would be that he would go to a staff that would give him a year to learn the program and do every thing prior to the strain of remaining a commencing quarterback was upon him,” Steinberg explained.
So the speculation that if Detroit selects Tagovailoa 3rd overall then it has to trade Stafford just would not maintain up. It would make more sense to continue to keep Stafford in 2020 and have Tagovailoa learn for a year as his backup, or probably perform if Stafford’s back damage lingers.
But trading Stafford this year just would not make sense for Detroit, and it most likely is not going to take place.
