Lions Lock Up Stafford

If I'm going to spend $78 million on someone in the draft, he will start playing NOW.

By the way, not all Lions fans were clamoring for Curry. Those that understand you can't have that much of your payroll locked into your linebacking corps realize how big of a mistake Curry would be number 1 overall.

Ken, Daunte is under contract for one year at a modest salary. My fear is that Stafford will kill Detroit's cap for the next six years. Having a crappy team next year is bad for sure, but putting all your eggs in the Matthew Stafford basket for the next five-six, I think, will be much much worse.

While the stafford contract has the chance to be a killer, it's got a better probability of a payoff than Curry simply because it's a guarantee that the curry contract would be crippling. Ernie Sims already has a big contract on the weak side, newly acquired Julian Petersen has a big contract on the strong side. The Lions just can't afford guaranteeing 30 million more to the middle linebacker position. It just won't work.

Lions improve to 4 and 12. Bad move.

They decided to gamble on Stafford. I still think that the savviest thing to do would have been to pick one of the elite OT this year and then next year a much safer qb like Bradford or McCoy. Any way, may be we're all wrong and Stafford will become the franchise qb Detroit is looking for since... well since...Bobby Layne in the 60s?

As a Vikings fan, I am thrilled that the Lions are overpaying a rookie QB like Stafford. I love your front office. Their decision must have gone like this:
Hmmm... he isn't a consensus #1. He isn't the consensus best QB. If we don't take him, he likely falls to 10 or lower. We have a reasonable contract for a #1 pick already lined up with Curry. (Yeah, too much for a LB, but he is as much of a lock as you can get in the draft.) Hmmm... so we have all the leverage in this situation - Stafford either plays our game and agrees to around 30m guaranteed or he free falls and only gets around 10m guaranteed. Cool.
Then, after a consultation with Matt Millen... OMGWTF this is the best player ever! I don't care that he has greater than a 50% chance to bust, let's get it done now! Let's pay him more than any rookie ever! Leverage, smeverage - get 'er done!!!!!

LOL - Nice move Lions. Even if he turns out to be an above average NFL starter - that is WAY too much coin. The only way this works out is if he is the next Peyton Manning. Does anyone think this is the case? Really!?!?

The contract is not a killer because every team can succeed using $12-$15 million in salary cap dollars in the QB position. You either have a veteran like Brady, Manning, Brees or McNabb making the money and a young guy behind them or a young 1st round pick in his first contract and a mid-level free agent as a safety net. Those are the only two (and only two options that really matter).

If you aren't in either of those camps, you are a team in need of a quarterback and a loser organization.

There is no team that wraps up $25 million in the three LB positions in a 4-3 defense. None. That's more of a financial killer than this option.

It han't been announced for sure yet, so maybe this is all a big joke and the lions front office just wanted to keep us on edge. Or they really are that stupid and our team is once again the laughing stock of the NFL community! Whoever says you can't invest that much money into a LB corp knows nothing! I'd rather pay 3 starting grade A LB's than one unproven cvollege junior who only came out this year because next year he'd be on the bottom of the QB pile, 78mil. f-ing ridiculous, go LIONS, rite into the ground like every other year!

Pay that 78million to Calvin he's all we got, he's the modern day recieving version of Barry Sanders, the only good guy on the team and he'l be outta here as soon as he can one way or another, because no one wants to play for a club that NEVER makes any progress, bottom dwellers forever thanks Lions!

hey chad... as a vikings fan, you have t-jack and little sagey rosenfels. We have a real NFL quarterback now. Have fun watching a hall of fame running back wallow for a loser team. We know that sight well.

deljzc, the issue is only part that an unproven player is getting eight figures a year. The issue is also that he's getting the most guaranteed money in NFL history. And he hasn't played a down. He could only play 40 games over the next six seasons (96 games, assuming the season isn't extended) and still get over 10 mil a year because of the guaranteed money.