Lions must trade Matthew Stafford before March 21

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The Lions hope to trade quarterback Matthew Stafford. The clock is ticking for their efforts to strike a deal.

The league year begins on March 17th. If Stafford remains on the roster from March 21, the Lions owe Stafford a bounty of $ 10 million.

Stafford will certainly not agree to delay this payment in order to facilitate an exchange. If the Lions don’t have a viable offer for Stafford before the league’s new year kicks off, the Lions may have to do their best to avoid owing him $ 10 million.

Detroit’s dilemma when it comes to maximizing Stafford’s business value comes from the fact that he has made it clear his willingness to trade him. Some teams may decide to be timid, in the hopes that expectations for Detroit will soften to the point that Stafford can be caught for far less than what the Lions hope to get for him.

The fact that only a third of the league called the Lions about Stafford even though it is now known that the Lions want to trade Stafford confirms the perception / reality that teams are waiting to get involved, in the hope to make Lions believe they won don’t get what they want until March 21, and they just have to take what they can get.

As a league source explained on Thursday, teams are constantly calling other teams about a wide variety of players, even those not under contract. More than 10 teams should have called the Lions about Stafford by now; it’s entirely possible that teams will slow things down in an effort to get the Lions going for a lot less than they might otherwise get, if other teams thought there was a chance that the Lions keep it.

That said, it doesn’t take a lot of teams to trigger an auction for Stafford’s contract. If only two teams intend to land Stafford, they can offer the prize at a level the Lions will be happy with.

Either way, once the window opens to officially trade, the Lions don’t have much time to do so before the Lions owe Stafford an additional $ 10 million.