Report: Lions to trade Matthew Stafford to Rams

I know that we don’t do a lot of stories that don’t actively feature the Minnesota Vikings, but this one involves a division rival and it’s a pretty big story.

According to numerous sources on social media, led by Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Detroit Lions will be trading their longtime quarterback, Matthew Stafford, to the Los Angeles Rams.

In exchange, the Lions will receive another former #1 overall pick in quarterback Jared Goff, the Rams’ third-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and the Rams’ first-round picks in both the 2022 and 2023 NFL Drafts.

Stafford has been the Lions’ starting quarterback since 2009, when Detroit made him the #1 overall pick in the draft. He’s taken a lot of hits from the Vikings over the years, including the 2018 contest where the purple sacked him a team-record setting ten times. While the Vikings have gotten the best of Stafford for the majority of his time in Detroit, there’s no questioning that he’s a pretty talented quarterback, and it would appear that the Rams are getting a significant upgrade.

They better hope that they can make good on the upgrade, because they now won’t have a first-round pick until 2024. Here are their recent first-round picks:

• 2016: Jared Goff (now traded to Detroit)
• 2017: None (traded as part of Goff deal)
• 2018: None (traded for Brandin Cooks)
• 2019: None (traded out of first round)
• 2020: None (traded for Jalen Ramsey)
• 2021: None (traded for Jalen Ramsey)
• 2022: None (traded for Matthew Stafford)
• 2023: None (traded for Matthew Stafford)

Also, one has to ask this. . .if this is the price for Matthew Stafford, what on earth is another team going to have to pay for DeShaun Watson?

In any case, the first big blockbuster of this offseason involves one of the Vikings’ divisional rivals making a big change at the quarterback position, sending Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for a huge bounty.

What do you think of the deal, folks?