National Football League

Lions are 'working towards' contract extension with Matthew Stafford

Published Mar. 28, 2017 9:47 a.m. ET

Dan Graf

Matthew Stafford will be the 18th-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL in 2017, but the Detroit Lions are going to have to change that soon, and they know it.

Coming off a season in which Stafford set an NFL record with eight fourth-quarter comebacks, he’s entering the final year of his contract, and Lions GM Bob Quinn said on Tuesday’s “PFT Live” that the team is working on an extension:

“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.”

In a league where the latest star quarterback to sign an extension often becomes the highest paid, it won’t be surprising if Stafford ends up a lot closer to the almost $25 million a year Andrew Luck is making than the $17.67 million he’s currently at. In the meantime, he can rest easy knowing the Lions believe bigger things are ahead for a quarterback who has a 51-58 career record but is coming off a season in which he proved he could be highly successful without retired receiver Calvin Johnson.

“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.”