It’s early, but contract talks are underway between the Lions and Matthew Stafford, GM Bob Quinn told Alex Marvez of The Sporting News. The quarterback is entering the final year of his deal. 
“We’re in the early stages,” Quinn said. “It’s really too early to kind of give any update but we’re going through the process. These things don’t happen overnight. I feel confident we can get something done.”
Stafford could be in line to become the league’s highest-paid quarterback, supplanting Andrew Luck at the top. Luck signed his five-year, $122.97MM extension last summer, just prior to his 27th birthday. Stafford, meanwhile, is 29, but the rising cap and dearth of quality quarterbacks could result in him netting an even richer deal.
Last year, Stafford performed like a top quarterback as he threw for 4,327 yards and 24 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. The University of Georgia product had the tenth-best completion percentage in the league (65.3%) amongst qualified QBs and graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 9 signal caller.
The Lions are hoping for a repeat of that in 2017, but they would like to lock him up now before they are faced with a pricey decision to make on the franchise tag. Tagging Stafford in 2018 would cost upwards of $26MM. Doing it again for 2019 could cost nearly $32MM. Obviously, those cap numbers are unpalatable and the Lions would greatly prefer a long-term deal at a lower yearly rate.
hes going to get over 25mil a year….his production especially in the playoffs makes him no better than Romo and Cutler. Detroit should let him go and draft a qb next year.
17mil a year 4 years