OK, this is going to get complicated.
My colleague Jeff Seidel wrote a good column over the weekend about the Matthew Stafford trade and the doors it’s opened for Brad Holmes and the Detroit Lions in the past two NFL drafts.
The shorthand version is the Lions traded Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in 2021 for Jared Goff, a third-round pick that year and first-round choices in 2022-23. Stafford led the Rams to the Super Bowl title, and Holmes got a haul in return that he has used to help build the Lions into contenders.
It’s as win-win a trade as they come in the NFL. The Rams got their ring; the Lions enter this season as the favorites in the NFC North. Everyone is happy.
DAVE BIRKETT: Grading the Lions’ 2023 draft: Brad Holmes got his guys, but at what price?
But trades aren’t that simple in the NFL, and Jeff’s column sent me down a rabbit hole to find every player, team and pick that it touched. The deal might have been Stafford for Goff and three draft picks, and the Lions might have used two of those picks in deals that netted Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, but the tributaries of the trade run much deeper.
In all, eight teams, 28 draft picks, 30 players and four quarterbacks were impacted by that deal in January 2021. The Lions acquired seven players thanks in some part to Stafford, and two of their NFC North competitors joined the action as well.
Here’s the longhand version of what the Lions got and gave up in a trade that touched a quarter of the league.
SHAWN WINDSOR: Culture, character are nice, but Lions need dudes. Brad Holmes keeps finding them.
Direct hits
It started simple enough. With the third-round pick they acquired in 2021, No. 101 overall, the Lions took Syracuse defensive back Ifeatu Melifonwu.
Melifonwu has done little in his NFL career so far. He started four games at cornerback out of necessity as a rookie, moved to safety last season and has missed as many games as he has played the past two years. He’ll compete for a backup role in the secondary this fall, but the simplicity of his part in this trade is unique.
Holmes has been one of the most active GMs when it comes to making deals the past two drafts, and he packaged both of the first-round picks he acquired for Stafford in trades.
TRADER BRAD: Here’s every NFL draft-day trade Brad Holmes has made as Lions GM
In 2022, Holmes used the Rams’ first-round pick, No. 32 overall, and his own picks in the second and third rounds (Nos. 34 and 66) to move up and draft Williams, the Alabama receiver, at No. 12. The Lions also received a second-round pick in the deal, No. 46, which they used to take Kentucky defensive lineman Josh Paschal.
This year, Holmes dealt the Rams’ first-round pick, No. 6 overall, in a move down with the Arizona Cardinals. The Lions received the 12th, 34th and 168th picks in return, and also gave Arizona a third-round choice, No. 81, in the deal.
The Lions used the 12th and 34th picks this year on offensive weapons they expect to play key roles this fall: Gibbs, the speedy Alabama running back, and Iowa tight end Sam LaPorta. They packaged the 168th pick with two other choices, Nos. 122 and 139, to move up and draft Western Kentucky nose tackle Brodric Martin at Pick No. 96.
In one way or another, Stafford helped the Lions net Goff, Williams, Gibbs, LaPorta, Melifonwu, Paschal and Martin.
To get their six drafted players, the Lions parted with eight picks: Nos. 32, 34 and 66 in 2022, and Nos. 6, 81, 122, 139 and 168 this year. Those picks turned into, in order: safety Lewis Cine, receiver Christian Watson, linebacker Brian Asamoah, offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr., running back Tyjae Spears, guard Jon Gaines II, quarterback Clayton Tune and linebacker Owen Pappoe.
DAVE BIRKETT: Brad Holmes handled NFL draft like a chess grandmaster
Balancing the ledgers
Let’s stop and catch our breath here, because as much as that is to digest, there’s more to come.
The Lions got Goff and Melifonwu directly in return for Stafford, and flipped the other two first-round picks they received in one big swap meet: Williams, Gibbs, LaPorta, Paschal and Martin, for Cine, Watson, Asamoah, Johnson, Spears, Gaines, Tune and Pappoe.
That’s one Pro Bowl quarterback and one backup defensive back for one Super Bowl-winning quarterback and a whole lot of hope for everyone else involved.
But the tentacles of the deal don’t stop there, and grow a little bit intertwined. After the Lions traded up for Williams in a five-pick swap with the Minnesota Vikings last spring, the Vikings used the first of the picks they acquired on Cine, and traded the second to the Green Bay Packers.
The Packers gave up two picks for the right to take Watson, Nos. 53 and 59 in the second round. The Vikings used the 59th pick on guard Ed Ingram, and sent the 53rd pick to the Indianapolis Colts as part of another five-pick swap to take cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. at No. 42. Along with Booth, the Vikings got pick 122 in the deal and gave the Colts picks 77 and 192.
Indianapolis took wide receiver Alec Pierce at 53, Central Michigan offensive lineman Bernhard Raimann at 77 and tight end Andrew Ogletree at 192, while the Vikings sent 122 to the Las Vegas Raiders along with 250 in another pick exchange. The Raiders took running backs Zamir White and Brittain Brown with those picks, and sent Minnesota Nos. 126 and 227 in return. The Vikings took tight end Nick Muse at 227, but traded 126 back to the Raiders for two more picks. Las Vegas took defensive tackle Nick Farrell Jr. at 126, while Minnesota got defensive end Esezi Otomewo and running back Ty Chandler at Nos. 165 and 169.
This year’s trade with Arizona resulted in a similar hot potato of picks.
The Cardinals included Pick No. 81 in a deal with the Tennessee Titans on Day 2 of the draft, when the Titans moved up to take Kentucky quarterback Will Levis at No. 33. The Titans also got Spears in the deal, at 81, while Arizona used the picks it acquired, Nos. 41 and 72, on pass rusher B.J. Ojulari and cornerback Garrett Williams.
The Lions sent 168 back to Arizona when they moved up for Martin. The Cardinals took Pappoe at 168, and added Gaines and Tune at 122 and 139.
There’s no fair way to balance out the ledgers of everyone involved. And my head was spinning trying to calculate which assets should go in the acquired-for-Stafford column and which ones the Lions, in some convoluted NFL form or the transitive property, gave up.
Depending on your point of view, the deal could be as simple Stafford for Goff, Melifonwu, Cine and Johnson, or as complicated as:
Jared Goff, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Jameson Williams, Josh Paschal, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta, Brodric Martin, Bernhard Raimann, Andrew Ogletree, Alec Pierce, Zamir White, Brittain Brown, Nick Farrell and Will Levis, plus Christian Watson and Tajae Spears (because those picks were traded twice)
-For-
Matthew Stafford, Lewis Cine, Brian Asamoah, Ed Ingram, Andrew Booth, Nick Muse, Ty Chandler, Esezi Otomewo, Paris Johnson, B.J. Ojulari, Garrett Williams, Clayton Tune, Owen Pappoe and Jon Gaines.
However you slice it, the deal made winners out of Stafford and the Rams, and it has set the Lions up for a bright future.
JEFF SEIDEL: Lions emerge from NFL draft with roster in great shape. Now it’s time to win
Twenty-seven months after it was consummated, the trade is finally over, but the story is still not complete.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.