Lions Have Had Some Discussions With Matthew Stafford’s Reps About Extension

Lions GM Bob Quinn joined Pro Football Talk Live on Tuesday and mentioned that they’ve had extension talks with the agents for QB Matthew Stafford.

“We’ve begun a few discussions with his representatives. These things take time. These things don’t usually happen early in April or May, but we’re working towards that,” Quinn said.

Quinn made it clear that he feels they can build a winning team around Stafford in the coming years.

“I have a great deal of respect for Matt,” Quinn said. “I think he’s a very good quarterback that has all the leadership and off the field traits that we look for in the quarterback position, and his on-field ability I think is well-documented. His arm strength, his mobility, which he used more of this year. I think he has all those things and we need to do a better job and I need to do a better of putting more pieces around him so we have a better team around him so he doesn’t have to carry the entire load.”

Stafford, 29, is a former first-round pick of the Lions back in 2009. He’s in the final year of his five-year, $76.5 million contract that included $41.5 million guaranteed and he stands to make a base salary of $16.5 million for the 2017 season.

In 2016, Stafford threw for 4,327 yards while completing 65.3 percent of his passes to go along with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 9 quarterback out of 34 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding a new deal for Stafford as the news is available.