DETROIT – With the Detroit Lions hosting Matthew Stafford in front of a national audience on Sunday night, the trade that sent him to the Rams is going to be a hot topic.
Detroit made the trade following the 2020 season. The entire Matt Patricia staff had been cleared out and a new era was about to begin under general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell.
The Lions had finished last in the NFC North Division for the third year in a row, going a combined 14-33-1 over that span. The roster didn’t offer much hope for the future.
It was time for a full reset.
Holmes didn’t inherit many valuable building blocks, and he certainly wasn’t going to let the franchise continue to wallow in mediocrity. So he did the only thing he could: He traded the team’s one true asset to increase the probability of winning in the years to come.
Stafford was still a very good quarterback at the time of the trade, but he was also entering his age 33 season. It’s not like the Lions were one or two players away from becoming Super Bowl contenders, so trading him and getting draft picks in return was a no-brainer.
Stafford has admitted he ultimately asked to be traded, too.
Holmes got a good haul. A pair of first-round picks and a third-rounder. Oh yeah, and he also got Jared Goff, who’s been just as good as Stafford over the past two seasons.
Those picks ultimately turned into Ifeatu Melifonwu, Jameson Williams, Josh Paschal, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Sam LaPorta -- with a few other picks exchanged in the process.
Goff, Melifonwu, Gibbs, and LaPorta were major contributors to Detroit’s first NFC North championship team. Williams and Paschal have played their roles, as well.
So why did Brad Holmes trade Stafford? He knew the Lions needed to turn over their entire roster, and the trade helped him execute that plan.
It’s one thing to make the trade, but it’s another to actually capitalize on it and put together a team that can win 12 games.
It’s not easy to come into a town and immediately ship out the face of the franchise. But the Stafford trade gave Holmes an opportunity to be more aggressive in the draft, and that’s obviously worked out in Detroit’s favor.
