Broncos should make an offer for Matthew Stafford
The Broncos should make an offer for Matthew Stafford in 2021.
Even if quarterback Drew Lock finishes the season strong as he did in 2019, the Denver Broncos should make an offer to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Back in 2012, Peyton Manning made his free agent adventure around the NFL, visiting with a few teams before ultimately choosing to sign with the Denver Broncos. In my opinion, the signing of Peyton Manning will go down as the greatest free agent acquisition in NFL history.
I need not say what happened for the next four years.
And in the upcoming offseason, while the circumstances are different, the Broncos should call the new Detroit Lions general manager (whoever that ends up being) and ask what they would want for future Hall of Famer Matthew Stafford.
It already worked with one future Hall of Famer, so why can’t it work with another one?
Obviously, Manning and Stafford are on completely different tiers. Peyton Manning is, in my opinion, the greatest and smartest quarterback of all time, and for many people, Matthew Stafford is just some guy.
Well, he’s not. In fact, Matthew Stafford and fellow NFC North quarterback Aaron Rodgers were the league’s Patrick Mahomes before Patrick Mahomes.
Stafford, as some people like to call him, “Stat Padford,” would bring every quality in a quarterback that John Elway desires. He has good size, exceptional mobility, above-average accuracy, and an RPG for a right arm. Furthermore, he is tough as nails, often getting beat up behind the Lions’ poor offensive line play.
In fact, when Drew Lock was coming out of college, Matthew Stafford was one of his NFL comparisons. Jay Cutler was also thrown around as a floor, but there are a lot of similarities between Lock and Stafford. The clear difference between them is that Stafford developed into a franchise QB, and Drew Lock hasn’t (yet).
I won’t get into what it would cost to acquire Stafford, but it might be quite a bit, and given his contract situation, I believe it is unlikely that he gets moved this year.
Stafford has been criticized by many for his lack of regular season wins, playoff wins, and overall impact on the franchise. While it is true that Stafford has led the Lions to only four winning records in his 12 years as the Lions’ signal-caller, and zero playoff victories, he is far from the issue.
For years, the Detroit Lions front office has failed to surround Stafford with adequate talent on both sides of the ball. Outside of Calvin Johnson and maybe Kenny Golladay, I’m not sure Stafford has had impact, game-breaking players like a lot of the greats do today.
Brees has Thomas, Rodgers has Adams, Mahomes has Hill and Kelce — the list goes on. Even the best quarterbacks benefit from having genuine impact players on their team.
I’m definitely not saying that Stafford hasn’t been surrounded with good talent, because he has, but can we imagine for a second what Stafford could do with the likes of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Noah Fant, Phillip Lindsay, and K.J. Hamler?
On top of that, he would also benefit from a Mike Munchak-coached offensive line.
Simply put, Matthew Stafford is an elite quarterback who has had the misfortune of playing for one of the most inept franchises in the NFL. As much as his family loves the city and call it home, I can’t help but wonder if he’d like a fresh start somewhere.
Stafford will be 33 when the new season rolls around and will be under contract through the 2021 and 2022 seasons. So, if the Broncos were serious about this, they would probably have to work out an extension to keep him longer than two seasons, as the team is very young, and in a much different spot than 2015.
One thing John Elway and the Broncos front office have done very well is contracts. Garett Bolles’ extension is very team-friendly, and I would have no doubt that they could work out an extension and have enough cap space to pay our budding stars.
I would caution Broncos Country in getting too excited about this because I do not think it will happen, but regardless of what happens with Drew Lock the rest of 2020, the team should still inquire about Matthew Stafford.