Matthew Stafford sat down for his postgame interview after Super Bowl LVI on Sunday surrounded by family.
His twin daughters, Chandler and Sawyer, sat on his lap. His 3-year-old, Hunter, balanced on the ledge of the podium in front of him. And when Hunter turned to see her toddler sister trying to climb on stage, Stafford grabbed the back of his wobbly daughter’s shirt and held on tight.
For the first time all night, the quarterback with ice in his veins and a Super Bowl title on his resume seemed understandably nervous.
“That’s a little scary,” he said. “Stay right here. Don’t move. Don’t move.”
Stafford led the Rams on a game-winning drive Sunday in what will go down as the signature moment of his career.
Trailing by four points with 6:13 to play on the NFL’s biggest stage, he steered a 15-play, 79-yard drive, sustained by a questionable third-and-8 penalty in the shadow of the end zone and capped with a perfect 1-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp.
Stafford did not play his best football Sunday, but he showed once again why the Rams drained their savings account to get him in a trade with the Detroit Lions last winter.
He carried a perfect passer rating late into the first half, and on a night when he had no semblance of a running game and lost one of his two dependable receivers to a torn ACL, he made enough plays when necessary to lead the Rams to a win.
After 12 thankless years in Detroit, the long-suffering ex-Lions quarterback hit the lottery with his new team.
“I love playing this game,” Stafford told the assembled media, his daughters still by his side. “I love playing this game for the competition, for the relationships, for the hard times, for the good times. All of it. This game can teach you so much as people. I get to go to work with people from all walks of life, come together and go for one goal. And for 12 years that goal wasn’t reached. It tore me up inside, but I knew I could keep playing and try to find a way and the fact that we reached that goal today is so special.”
No debate necessary
It’s OK to feel good today for Stafford, the best quarterback most Lions fans have ever rooted for in their life.
It’s OK to be mad at the Lions, the organization that never showed the zeal it needed to win a Super Bowl despite, we now know, having a quarterback capable of winning one on its roster.
It’s OK, too, to wonder what it all means for the future. Whether Stafford is a Hall of Famer, whether the Lions botched the trade that sent him to L.A., and what the next few years hold post-Stafford in Detroit.
Let’s take those one by one.
Stafford certainly helped his Hall of Fame case with Sunday’s performance, but it’s still premature to say his bust is in the oven.
As a voter who has now sat through seven long selection meetings, I can tell you championships are an important part of a player’s resume, especially a quarterback’s, and they seem extra meaningful when they come with a tidy storyline like this one: The Rams sent three draft picks and quarterback Jared Goff to the Lions, believing Stafford was the missing piece they needed for a Super Bowl. Twelve months later, Stafford helped deliver a ring.
But no one gets elected on titles or statistics alone. Stafford, who almost certainly will retire with some of the most prolific passing numbers in NFL history, has never been a first- or second-team All-Pro selection and never been considered one of the top few quarterbacks in the game. He couldn’t crack the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning-Drew Brees-Aaron Rodgers tier during his Lions days, and he’s considered just outside of the Rodgers-Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen-Joe Burrow level now.
There’s no shame in that, of course, but it’s the Hall of Fame and there are plenty of voters who will need more convincing for someone who was not considered in the top 10% of starters at his position during his career.
If Eli Manning gets in, in a few years, and Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan after that, Stafford would be a no-brainer. Until then, the debate will go on.
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As for the trade itself, there is no debate necessary there. At least for now.
The Rams are the clear winners, though it is important to note Brad Holmes had no intention of trading Stafford when he took over as Lions GM.
Holmes told me last spring he intended to build around Stafford until he learned of Stafford’s desire for a fresh start. With his quarterback determined to play elsewhere in 2022, Holmes opened the bidding last January and found himself with two competitive offers.
He took the Rams’ future-laden deal over one from the Carolina Panthers that would have given the Lions the No. 8 pick in last year’s draft, plus quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and a fifth-rounder.
I wrote at the time I preferred the Panthers’ deal because of the opportunity it would have given the Lions to land a blue-chip player near the top of the draft. Pairing Penei Sewell with Micah Parsons or DeVonta Smith (or, who knows, maybe a quarterback) would have given the Lions two cornerstones to build around.
Instead, Holmes rolled the dice that L.A.’s two future first-round picks would be more valuable to the Lions’ long-term rebuild than Carolina’s one top-10 choice. The first of those picks has slotted in at No. 32 in this year’s draft, and the second will be determined by how the Rams do next season.
Ultimately, Holmes will be judged on what he does with the draft capital acquired in the Stafford trade, and not on the trade itself.
If Holmes can use those picks to make the Lions a long-term winner, Stafford’s ring will be a footnote in Lions history. If he can’t, it will be a dagger to the organization’s heart.
The long game
Now that Stafford’s run is complete, the focus locally will be on the Lions again.
The Lions should have six of the top 100 or so picks in April’s draft, their own choices at the top of the first four rounds, plus No. 32 from the Rams and a compensatory pick late in Round 3 for losing Kenny Golladay in free agency.
That’s more than enough capital to jumpstart their rebuild, especially if they can land a player like Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson at No. 2. Throw in one major free agent signing this spring and there’s reason to believe the Lions will contend for the postseason come fall.
Competing for a playoff spot and a Super Bowl are two different things, of course, and that is where it’s up to Holmes to bridge the gap.
The Lions need a long-term answer at quarterback and are destined to tread water until they get one, but Holmes’ history with the newly crowned Super Bowl champs should give every Lions fan hope he won’t waste a Stafford-like career should he land that type quarterback.
The Rams were meticulous in the early stages of their building process, hoarding talent on the defensive line and at the offensive skill positions. When their window to win finally opened, they acted aggressively, trading up for Goff in the draft, then Jalen Ramsey on defense, then Stafford when it became apparent Goff wasn’t the answer.
Holmes, similarly, is playing the long game now, fortifying the offensive line and accumulating draft picks in an effort to build the best, most complete roster possible.
There is no reason for the Lions to be Rams-aggressive yet. As Holmes said during Senior Bowl week, the Lions are in a different stage of their title pursuit than L.A. was when it had to have Stafford last year.
Soon enough, though, that stage will shift, and when it does, those who work with Holmes are confident he will be ready to attack.
The Lions would have been better than 3-13-1 had they held onto Stafford, but they weren’t going to win anything meaningful with him on their roster this season. Stafford, likewise, isn’t the type of quarterback who would have taken the Panthers to the Super Bowl had fate sent him to Carolina.
In the end, he made the most of a good situation and got his ring. The Lions got their draft picks, and if they don’t do the same, they’ll have only themselves to blame.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.