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USA TODAY Sports
The first thing for the Detroit Lions to do once the season is over will be hiring a general manager and head coach. The second agenda for the Lions – and the first agenda for the new GM and coach – will be making a decision regarding quarterback Matthew Stafford.
On the fifth day of the 2021 league year, which tentatively begins March 21, Stafford will earn a bonus of $ 10 million. So if the Lions want to trade or reduce Stafford, $ 10 million depends on the decision made before that date.
Stafford has a base salary of $ 9.5 million and a training bonus of $ 500,000, bringing his total compensation for 2021 to $ 20 million. The fact that half of the money is due so soon forces the Lions to make a quick decision, preventing them from keeping Stafford and his family in limbo. It’s a smart term that often doesn’t pop up in the later years of a veteran contract, but it certainly should. In Stafford’s case, this will give him clarity at the start of the annual offseason game of musical chairs.
Trading Stafford would avoid the $ 20 million cash requirement and cap for 2021, but that would trigger a cap of $ 24.85 million for 2021. Cutting it with a designation after June 1 would ultimately spread the consequences over two years, with $ 14.95 million landing in 2021 and the remaining $ 9.9 million in 2022.
Keeping Stafford without any kind of restructuring or extension will mean a cap of $ 34.95 million for Stafford in 2020.
So whatever the Lions do, it’s going to create a ceiling problem, and if they keep Stafford, there will also be a money problem. The fact that Stafford’s move saves $ 20 million on the heels of a season with reduced income due to the pandemic could make it very tempting to cut and execute Stafford’s contract balance.
Another factor in the overall conversation will be Stafford’s wishes. If he doesn’t want to stay with the next new regime in Detroit (or if his wife just wants to leave Michigan), that will determine if the Lions would pay that much to keep him.
Some would say the Lions should keep Stafford because there are no good alternatives. It is, however, too early to know which quarterbacks will be available through free will or trade. There will also be a new harvest of quarterbacks in the project. And while the Lions can’t acquire a quarterback that will win a playoff game, well, they haven’t had one since January 1992, when Stafford was three.
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