Matthew Stafford is heading towards a very important season in 2020 for the Detroit Lions, and there is no shortage of opinions on what the team must do with him this offseason.
Stafford recently celebrated his 32nd birthday on February 7, and the ESPN show Pardon The Interruption wished him a happy day. As part of that, host Tony Kornheiser said that he thinks Stafford should remain entrenched in Detroit, and folks who think he should be on the move are crazy.
“8 games into last season, Stafford had 19 touchdowns and 5 interceptions and his best passer rating ever, 106.0. How valuable is Stafford? After that game, he broke his back, he missed the final 8 games of the season. How did the Lions do? How does 0-8 sound? People who think the Lions should move on from Matthew Stafford are insane,” Kornheiser said.
Many have said that the Lions and Stafford could be heading for a split, but it’s clear Kornheiser isn’t one such person who believes that to be the case.
Kurt Warner on Matthew Stafford’s Lions Future
Like Kornheiser, not everyone thinks Stafford and the Lions should head for a split. Take former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer turned broadcaster Kurt Warner. Speaking at the Super Bowl in a piece by Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com, Warner was asked about the situation the Lions find themselves in with Stafford and the potential to draft Tua Tagovailoa at the top of the NFL Draft.
According to Warner, the best move for the team to make would be to stick with their quarterback. Here’s a look at part of what he said in Twentyman’s piece:
“What will Bob Quinn decide to do with his top three pick? There’s certainly a lot of opinions out there. Will he draft a playmaker to help a defense that struggled most of last season? Could they trade the pick to a quarterback-needy team and acquire more assets? Some analysts believe the Lions should draft a quarterback and join the trend of building around a young and less expensive signal caller.
Don’t include Hall of Famer, Super Bowl winner, NFL Network analyst and former quarterback Kurt Warner among that last group.
“As long as Matthew (Stafford) is healthy, and they believe he can be healthy moving forward, he’s got plenty of time left to play and he’s extremely talented,” Warner said Thursday at the Super Bowl, when asked about Stafford and the Lions’ decision with the No. 3 pick. “For me, if I was Detroit, I’m saying, ‘Can we build a team around Matthew and then see what we have?’
“I mean he’s done so many great things in this league, but I don’t feel like he’s ever had a complete team around him, where he could truly compete so we could see really how good is he?”
The chance at finally having that complete team could come in 2020, if the Lions are able to get healthy and keep Stafford healthy as well. An improved defense as well as a healthier offense will allow Stafford the chance to perhaps have a full complement of weapons to see what he can do.
In that instance, Warner could be right, and the best move could be for the team to simply stick with the guy who was having a MVP level season prior to injury in 2019.
Bob Quinn Speaks on Matthew Stafford’s Status
Stafford’s future has been open to interpretation with rumors swirling that the team could draft someone else or move on entirely. Bob Quinn, however, joined SiriusXM NFL Radio and explained why none of that could be the case at all.
“I’m totally comfortable and happy Matthew Stafford’s our quarterback. He’s going to be in full health once the offseason program starts its course. He’s pretty much at full health right now. Talked to him about 10 days ago,” Quinn said in the interview. “He was in the office so he’s feeling great. He’s in a good mindset, he’s excited. Obviously he’s a competitor so to miss half the season was hard on him. But he did a great job with our backup quarterbacks.”
Specifically, Quinn admitted he liked watching Stafford work with the backups and prepare them. That let him know the team is in good hands moving forward.
“Just behind the scenes, seeing him in a different light,” he said. “Since I’ve been there he’s been at every practice and every game. To see him in coach mode was pretty cool to see. He really cares about not only our team and his teammates and his leadership, really helping those other quarterbacks learn our system on the fly when he went down.”
That leads Quinn to feel positively about Stafford moving forward and the impact he might have on the team.
“I feel great about Matthew. He’s going to come back strong and we’re ready to go for next year,” he said.
These quotes would seem to throw cold water on the notion that the Lions would draft a quarterback early or decide to deal Stafford this offseason. Some of the chatter might continue to say otherwise.
As Kornheiser says, Stafford’s importance to the Lions simply cannot be debated.
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