Matthew Stafford trade rumors: Are the Detroit Lions really clueless?
By Robert Jones
Win now without Matthew?
Everything is getting a little confusing and hard to understand down at Allen Park. The Lions claim to have given Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia the mandate to win, but if the rumors that were reported by WDIV ClickonDetroit hold any weight, then it would appear that Quinn and Patricia have decided to explore the possibility of moving on from Stafford.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the Lions were winless after Stafford went down to injury last season. They don’t have a quarterback on the roster that is anywhere capable of replacing him and giving Quinn and Patricia any real chance of winning as mandated. And the cap hit of trading Stafford combined with the price tag it would take to sign a competent NFL quarterback would strangle the Lions salary cap.
Second, it seems hard to believe that Stafford secretly asked to be traded since he has been incredibly loyal to the Lions. And if he had then his wife Kelly wouldn’t have had reason to react on Twitter the way she did by accusing the Lions of being ‘done’ with Matthew.
This pretty much leaves two options if these rumors are true; the Ford family lied to us and are willing to allow Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia to do a complete rebuild or Quinn is dangling Stafford’s name as trade bait to manipulate the draft into the Lions’ best interest.
Either one is entirely possible. I don’t think any Lions fan is above believing that the Ford’s would lie to their fans. Meanwhile, Patricia has spent the last two offseasons proclaiming the virtues of not tipping his hand. And, quite frankly, Quinn is the invisible man except for a brief state of the team interview at seasons end and a couple of sightings at training camp.
So when Quinn reportedly text messaged the Detroit Free Press to deny the trade rumors. It confirmed one of two things. Either someone in the Lions organization is lying to the fans or they collectively have no idea what direction they are headed in.