https://www.instagram.com/p/CMhkATmD69m/?igshid=i27aa7d4c58n
2 Likes
AJ Green to Cards
1 Like
Bill is fishing 
Bengals have put in an offer for Golliday if he joins Boyd and Higgins then Burrow has the best WR group in the league, badly need to sort their O line though.
He is visiting the Giants tomorrow- would be surprised if he went to the Bengals on a one year prove it deal. He is nearly 28 coming off an injury and if he was to get injured next year his market would shrink even further. This deal needs to be his pay day.
He turned down a 4 year 70 + million or so year deal off the Lions in September thinking he would get 20 million + per year in free agency. Looking like he will do well to get in the early to mid teens now.
Solomn Thomas to the Raiders, no 3 overall pick and a verified bust.
Goodbye to Matthew Stafford, who gave all he could to the Lions, even if it wasnât enough
Chris Burke 16m ago
Week 17. A mostly empty Ford Field, save for a smattering of playersâ friends and family in the stands. A matchup of two teams, Detroit and Minnesota, with nothing of real consequence left on the line.
Matthew Stafford had no business being out there, frankly. The previous Sunday, against Tampa Bay, heâd attempted just three passes before badly turning his ankle and hobbling into the locker room on one foot. Two games before that, against Green Bay, heâd suffered a rib cartilage injury that was so painful, he couldnât even try a warm-up throw on the sideline.
With the Lions long out of postseason contention, playing for an interim coach, without a GM and ahead of a very uncertain few months, no one would have faulted Stafford for sitting one out. But the 12-year veteran willed himself onto the field, for what would turn out to be his final game as a Detroit Lion.
And, just before kickoff, Stafford gathered his teammates near the west end zone.
âHey, whatever you got left in the fucking tank today, let it out today!â Stafford implored them. âLetâs go! Letâs end this thing the right way, get a win.â
The Lions lost, of course, but not for lack of effort. Stafford, hobbled and hurting, threw for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns â two of them to his good friend, Marvin Jones, whoâd been right there with him over the past five seasons as the franchise teased a brighter tomorrow, only to have it all unravel again.
Stafford kept playing like each game was the one that would turn it all around. Above all â the No. 1 overall pick, the insane throws, the fourth-quarter heroics â that should be Staffordâs legacy in Detroit: He gave absolutely everything he had to this team. Even if it, so often, wasnât enough.
âThe guy is laying everything out there on the line in a game that he doesnât need to,â interim coach Darrell Bevell said after Detroitâs 37-35 season-ending loss. âI think that says a lot about him as a person, about him as a quarterback, what he means to the team.â
The trade rumors had been there for a while. With each passing year, as Stafford and the Lions trudged through letdown after letdown (and offensive coordinator after offensive coordinator), the outside football world looked on and wondered if a split might be best for both sides. Certainly for Stafford, who now sits 16th on the NFLâs all-time passing list and has one of the greatest arms this game has ever seen, but with just three playoff berths â and zero playoff wins â to show for it all.
At the NFL scouting combine a little more than a year ago, though, then-Lions GM Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia stood in a hallway of the Indiana Convention Center and insisted, emphatically, that Stafford wasnât moving.
After a report surfaced to the contrary â that the Lions were shopping Stafford with the hope of trading him â Quinn called his quarterback. âListen,â he told Stafford. âI havenât had one conversation. Iâm not trading you, period.â
Stafford responded, per Quinnâs recollection: âI donât want to go anywhere.â
Stafford doubled down a few months later, when he met with the media over Zoom. âIâm here,â he said. âI want to be here. I love being a Detroit Lion, love leading this team. All that kinda stuff is just out there to be out there.â
Matthew Stafford played through multiple injuries last season, after missing the second half of 2019. (Raj Mehta / USA Today)
Whether or not those were 100-percent, Godâs-honest truths at the time, Stafford was in a different place by the time the 2020 season wrapped. There wasnât one specific moment that turned the momentum, either. It was merely a slow burn, exacerbated by a decade-plus of frustration and another impending franchise reset.
Stafford, understandably, didnât want to go through all of that again. So, following Week 17, he approached Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp and team president Rod Wood with the request that they explore a trade.
âI think it was inevitable,â said former Lions receiver Nate Burleson, while promoting Crown Royal during Super Bowl week. Burleson, now with NFL Network, played alongside Stafford from 2010-13 and has remained close with his former quarterback ever since.
âIt was either one of two things,â he continued. âYou almost hold him hostage, in a sense. Or you allow him to leave. And at this point, I think it was good for everybody.â
Complicating it all was that the Lions first had to find a new general manager and head coach, folks whoâd be willing both to facilitate that trade and head into a rebuild minus the longtime face of the franchise.
As they zeroed in on Brad Holmes (at GM) and Dan Campbell (at head coach), they had each discuss Staffordâs future with the quarterback himself. Stafford didnât waver from his desire to start fresh.
âTo him,â Campbell told The Athletic , âheâs like, âI have this small window,â and he didnât feel like he could win a championship here. Letâs call it what it is. He feels like his windowâs closing and he wanted to go to the best opportunity to make that happen. His mind was made up. No problem. We understand. Thatâs where his mindâs at.â
Any concerns that Staffordâs high-priced contract might scare away suitors faded in a hurry. Washington came with a strong offer. Carolina, too. In the end, the Lions had seven or eight teams in the bidding, per a league source, all with at least a first-round pick on the table. They viewed the Ramsâ offer â a 2021 third-round pick, first-rounders in 2022 and â23, plus QB Jared Goff â as âfar and awayâ the preferred option.
On Jan. 30, the trade news broke. And now, as the new league year begins, the deal can finally be made official. Goff will be the Lionsâ quarterback. And the Matthew Stafford era in Detroit will be over.
What is the best throw of Staffordâs Lions career? The 40-yard laser to Kris Durham up the sideline to help save a game against the Cowboys? Any of the dozens of touchdowns he threw to Calvin Johnson, Marvin Jones and Golden Tate?
Or how about his fastball to Kenny Golladay in the end zone, through about four Chiefs defenders during the 2019 season? He made that pass â threw for 291 yards and three TDs against the eventual Super Bowl champs â despite his injured back hurting so badly during the pregame that he couldnât take warm-up throws.
There was the last-second touchdown against Cleveland in 2009, too, which came after a Brownsâ defender landed all his weight on Staffordâs left (non-throwing) shoulder. Despite writhing in pain through a timeout, Stafford willed himself back on the field for that dramatic moment.
Staffordâs arm was â is â a sight to behold. Itâs always there, no matter how healthy the rest of his body may be. His extreme trust in it could be a blessing or a curse, but it meant that any given passing attempt, under any circumstance, could turn into a dazzling, highlight-reel moment.
âYou go back and watch the games,â said former Lions tight end Logan Thomas, during his 2019 Detroit stint, âheâs making throws that shouldâve never been made, (that) nobody else â maybe one or two other people in the league â can make. Heâs got pressure on him, heâs throwing it (sidearm), between two people ⌠Heâs the best quarterback Iâve ever played with.â
Final numbers from Staffordâs Lions career: 45,109 yards passing, 282 touchdowns and 31 fourth-quarter comebacks. (Cary Edmondson / USA Today)
His arm is so exceptional, so natural, that even some of his most difficult throws can look routine. Back at his private, pre-draft workout with the Lions, Detroit offensive coordinator Scott Linehan asked Stafford to attempt a quick, 2-yard hitch. He rifled it at his receiver.
âYou donât need to throw that one that hard,â Linehan said.
âThat wasnât hard,â Stafford replied.
Asked once following a practice if he found it ironic that everyone praised QBs like Patrick Mahomes for doing things like, say, throwing sidearm or completing no-look passes â things Stafford had been criticized for in the past â Stafford just smiled, shrugged and moved on to the next question.
Thatâs typically how he handles ⌠everything, really. His public persona is carefully crafted to be as unassuming as possible. He never hypes himself up, tries very hard not to complain (unless itâs about his own performance). If it frustrated him that he could go overlooked, he used it as motivation.
All the while, Stafford and his wife, Kelly, poured untold amounts of money back into the local community. Each December, the couple âsponsoredâ several local families and showered them with Christmas gifts. In February, well after news of the Stafford-for-Goff trade broke, the Staffords committed $1 million toward building an education center at the SAY Play Center in Detroit.
Staffordâs teammates got the same version of him behind the scenes, more or less â a poised, no-nonsense competitor who just wanted to do as much as he could. Ask any of them, past or present, and theyâll tell you theyâd go to the mat for him.
âIâve been around a lot of great ones, and heâs one of the great ones,â former Lions backup QB Matt Cassel said. âThe way he prepares, the knowledge he has of the offense, the way that he leads, the way that he never takes a day off ⌠he works hard, he does everything in his capacity to get these guys ready to go. He takes extra time during meetings, after meetings, even tonight heâll sit there and go over stuff with receivers. True pro. Great leader.â
Rare natural gifts on the field. A standup, high-character presence off of it. Aside from piling on the Lionsâ internal ineptitudes or labeling Stafford a QB who just canât get it done, there arenât great answers for why this never clicked.
There were moments when it looked like it might â the surprise playoff berth in 2011, the 2014 team (and its phenomenal defense) that was a botched call and muffed punt from advancing beyond the wild-card round, all those late comebacks in 2016. The Lions couldnât sustain any of it. They couldnât push beyond where theyâd already been.
Stafford tried, but he also wasnât immune to bouts of inaccuracy or ill-timed turnovers. The ups and far more prevalent downs weighed on him, as they should have, because they weighed on everyone.
As the Lions decided to tear it all down and start over, Stafford saw his own opportunity to begin anew.
The greatest quarterback in franchise history poured all he had into this team for 12 years. It was never enough. Now, weâll see what the future holds for Stafford in Los Angeles and the Lions, still hoping to get this right someday, watching from afar
2 Likes
The Pats are still probably only gonna be a 9-7 or 10-6 kinda team unless Cam really steps up. Should be a lot more fun than last year tho.
MVP Mitch heading to the Bills
Smart move.
4 Likes
JuJu to the Jets??
Paddy Chung has called it a dayâŚ
Best of luck with the next chapter Patrick.
Implosion imminent
The rate the number of lawsuits are being brought against Deshaun Watson he might find it hard to force his way out of Houston unless he gets released.
JIMMY JIMMY JIMMY a man after midnight
Joe Flacco visiting the Niners. Good to have an elite quarterback in the building.
Eli Manning working out there too.
1 Like
Will Fuller taking a one year deal off the Dolphins
1 Like