Of the handful of teams in on a potential trade for the now-former Lions quarterback, Matthew Stafford was the New England Patriots who made mention this offseason that they would not bring back Cam Newton for the 2021 season.
However, according to Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports on Sunday, the veteran QB seemed ready to veto any trade to the Patriots with Curran mentioning, “Stafford told the Lions they could send him anywhere but New England.”
Stafford, who turns 33 on Super Bowl Sunday, preferred to go to Los Angeles and the Lions seemed willing to grant that request to their all-time leader in pretty much every statistical QB category for the team.
Other than that there’s a multitude of reasons why Stafford probably wanted nothing to do with New England.
First, the Patriots are probably on the cusp of their own roster rebuild themselves and with Stafford now well into his thirties, this may be his last opportunity to make a serious run at a Super Bowl.
Second, playing in an outdoor stadium in the upper north east sounds like hell come November and December.
Third, although Bill Belichick is a great head coach, I think it’s pretty clear that Tom Brady was the bigger factor in that Patriots dynasty. Not to mention Belichick has garnered a reputation to be demanding and quite the asshole.
And speaking of Tom Brady, I’m not sure anyone, including Stafford is ready to take on that shadow in New England.
Finally, Matt Patricia is back with the Patriots and Stafford probably wants nothing to do with that.
Other than that, the Lions seemingly had their pick of multiple offers for Stafford, some of which had a first-round pick included this season according to Ian Rapoport. Whether those offers though include multiple first-round picks like they received from the Rams is unclear at this point.