Matthew Stafford listed the Rams at the top of their destination list, but 9News’ Mike Klis noted that the longtime Lions quarterback approved the Broncos as a landing site. And the teams reached the offer stage in their conversations.
While the Lions ended up accepting the Rams offer centered on two choices in the first round, they were interested in both the choices and the Broncos players. The Lions were interested in sending Stafford to Denver because of the Broncos’ ninth overall pick, according to Klis, who adds that the new Detroit regime was also interested in some of Denver’s young offensive talents.
It is not known which of the Broncos’ new contract recipients appealed to Lions, but Klis adds Drew Lock came up in those conversations. Lock is coming out of a totally inconsistent season, but is tied to a second round deal that runs until 2022. Lions have instead resumed Jared Goff, which allowed them to collect more in trade compensation from the Rams due to the onerous General 1 pickaxe contract, but will only add a third round selection to their 2021 draft arsenal.
Several proposals emerged in the negotiations between Denver and Detroit, but Klis tweets none of the Broncos ‘pitches were on par with the Rams’ offer. Both Broncos and Lions have new GMs, George Paton and Brad Holmes, and teams would have matched the wide receiver – where the Broncos have three wideouts in the first or second round and the Lions have Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones on the edge of the free agency. It is not clear whether Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton or KJ Hamler came to the fore in these trade negotiations, but Paton ended up refusing to give up the lot of young talent he is inheriting.
Stafford represented an obvious QB update for the Broncos, who have been experiencing constant problems at the top of the game since Peyton Manningretirement. With Deshaun Watson without being connected to Denver yet, the prospect of the Broncos pitching a QB room led by Lock again is certainly at stake. Before John ElwayUpon leaving, the Broncos were believed to have targeted a veteran to compete with Lock. Paton not being tied to Lock can also point to the Broncos giving greater consideration to the use of general choice No. 9 in a quarterback.
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