Matthew Stafford listed the Rams atop his destination list, but 9News’ Mike Klis notes that the longtime Lions quarterback approved of the Broncos as a landing spot. And the teams reached the bidding stage in their talks.
Although the Lions eventually accepted the Rams’ offer, centered around two first-round picks, they took an interest in picks as well as players from the Broncos. The Lions were interested in sending Stafford to Denver because of the Broncos’ overall No. 9 pick, according to Klis, adding that Detroit’s new regime was also interested in some of Denver’s young offensive talents.
It is not known which of the Broncos’ rookie contract-wide recipients called on the Lions, but Klis adds Drew Lock emerged in these conversations. Lock is coming off a hugely inconsistent season, but is tied to a second-round deal that will run until 2022. The Lions took back instead Jared Goff, allowing them to collect more in trade compensation from the Rams due to the heavy contract of the former No. 1 overall pick, but will only add a third round to their design arsenal for 2021.
Several proposals came up during the Denver-Detroit talks, but Klis tweets none of the Broncos ‘places were at the level of the Rams’ offerings. Both the Broncos and Lions have new GMs, in George Paton and Brad Holmes, and the teams would have matched on a wide receiver – where the Broncos have three first- or second-round wideouts and the Lions have Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones on the eve of free agency. It is unclear whether Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton or KJ Hamler came to the fore in these trade talks, but Paton eventually refused to part with the batch of young talents he inherited.
Stafford represented an obvious QB upgrade for the Broncos, who have had constant issues in the main spot of the game ever since Peyton Manningretired. With Deshaun Watson Since they are not yet connected with Denver, the prospect of the Broncos going to use a Lock-led QB room again is certainly in play. In front of John Elway‘s exit, it was believed that the Broncos were the target of a veteran to compete with Lock. Paton not tied to Lock may also indicate that the Broncos are more considering using the No. 9 overall pick on a quarterback.
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