Lions Trade Matthew Stafford To Rams For Jared Goff
The Lions have agreed to trade Matthew Stafford to the Rams, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The deal will send the Lions’ longtime star to L.A. in exchange for fellow QB Jared Goff, plus a slew of draft picks. The exact terms of the trade could evolve in the coming weeks, but here’s what the trade currently looks like: 
Rams receive:
- QB Matthew Stafford
Lions receive:
- QB Jared Goff
- 2021 third-round pick
- 2022 first-round pick
- 2023 first-round pick
The deal cannot become official until March 17th, though Stafford will surely be in contact with his new bosses much sooner. Stafford, soon to be 33, had spent all 12 of his NFL seasons in Detroit. When Stafford and the Lions agreed to go their separate ways, the Colts, Patriots, Broncos, and Washington TBDs were quickly connected to him. Ultimately, the Rams pounced on their chance to upgrade at the QB position and unload Goff’s contract in a historic swap of former No. 1 overall picks.
Goff earned Pro Bowl nods in Year 2 and Year 3 of his pro career, including a 2018 campaign where was under center for a Super Bowl appearance. Things have tailed off over the past two years, despite his high-priced extension. In 2019, he threw a career-high 16 interceptions. He followed that up with just 20 passing touchdowns in 2020 — the lowest total since his rookie year, when he started in just seven games.
Stafford, meanwhile, has fallen short of the 20-TD mark just once since 2011. Aside from his injury-filled 2019 campaign with just 19 passing touchdowns, he’s been an absolute rock for the Lions. The Rams are now set to add one of the game’s top quarterbacks to one of the league’s most talented rosters.
The Lions, meanwhile, will try their hand with Goff, who won’t turn 27 until October. Not long removed from his NFC title — or his No. 1 overall selection, for that matter — there’s reason to believe that Goff can get back on track. Even if he can’t, the Lions have tons of draft ammunition to work with in their rebuild.
Packers, DC Mike Pettine To Part Ways
Mike Pettine will not return for a fourth season as Packers defensive coordinator, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reports (on Twitter). The veteran coach’s contract expired at season’s end.
The former Browns HC turned down an extension last year and is a free agent. Pettine worked under both Mike McCarthy and Matt LaFleur in Green Bay but failed to elevate the Packers into a consistent defensive unit during his stay.
The Packers are coming off an NFC championship game loss that featured a game-swinging Buccaneers end-of-half touchdown. Tampa Bay booked a ticket to Super Bowl LV on the strength of the 18-point lead it built in Green Bay, and Scotty Miller‘s 39-yard score with 1 second remaining in the first half led to the Bucs amassing that wide margin early in the third quarter. LaFleur criticized Pettine’s end-of-half play call after the loss. Overall, the Packers ranked 13th in scoring defense this past season. DVOA was less kind to Pettine’s troops, slotting them 17th overall.
Green Bay used first-round picks on three defenders from 2018-19 — Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage — and gave lucrative deals to pass rushers Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith in free agency. However, the 49ers bulldozed Pettine’s unit in the 2019 NFC championship game and the Bucs ran up a big lead in this year’s NFC title tilt. While Alexander broke out under Pettine’s watch and intercepted two passes in Sunday’s loss, the Packers will have a new defensive play-caller next season.
This move comes shortly after the Packers fired special teams coordinator Shawn Mennenga. LaFleur’s staff will soon have two new coordinators, despite the Packers having gone 26-6 over the past two seasons.
Roethlisberger Willing To Restructure Deal
Shortly after Art Rooney II indicated Ben Roethlisberger would need to restructure his contract to return to the Steelers next season, the future Hall of Fame quarterback said he would do so.
Roethlisberger, who has contended he wants to return for an 18th season, said Thursday he is not concerned about money for the 2021 season and is willing to restructure, Ed Bouchette of The Athletic reports (on Twitter). Roethlisberger’s deal calls for a whopping $41MM cap hit next season. The 38-year-old quarterback went to the Steelers about restructuring his contract.
“I want to do everything I can and made that very clear to them from the very beginning that it was my idea to basically help the team however I can this year,” Roethlisberger said, via Bouchette (Twitter links). “I am pretty sure I want to go one more year (because) I think I can do it and give us a real chance (at) winning.”
The Steelers are projected to be more than $30MM over a $175MM cap, though it is not known how far the cap will drop from this year’s $198MM ceiling. And that is without players like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Bud Dupree or Mike Hilton factoring into Pittsburgh’s 2021 payroll. More work will need to be done in order for the Steelers to move under the cap, but Roethlisberger agreeing to a pay cut would make matters much easier for the AFC North champions.
Roethlisberger signed his latest extension, which runs through 2021, in 2019. After counting $23.8MM against Pittsburgh’s 2020 cap, Big Ben’s contract balloons to the untenable $41.25MM figure next season. The decorated quarterback is due a $15MM roster bonus on the third day of the next league year. These numbers appear set to change soon.
Fond of restructures, the Steelers have continually made bad cap situations work. Though this year presents a greater challenge, due to the pandemic forcing a long-expected cap reduction. The franchise also has not made an investment in Big Ben’s surefire successor, even though it has Mason Rudolph and now Dwayne Haskins signed to low-cost deals. Roethlisberger returning at a reduced rate would surely help the Steelers next season, but the team losing several starters in free agency would make it difficult to assemble the kind of roster it possessed this past season.
Jason Witten To Retire After 17 Seasons
After two years back in the game, Jason Witten will return to retirement. The future Hall of Fame tight end informed ESPN.com’s Todd Archer he is leaving football for a second time.
Witten retired after the 2017 season but returned to the NFL in 2019, re-signing with the Cowboys. He played the 2020 season as a Raider. When Witten’s one-year Raiders contract expires in March, he intends to sign a one-day Cowboys deal to make this second NFL exit official.
“A coach once told me, ‘The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example,’” Witten said, via Archer. “As I hang it up, I walk away knowing that for 17 seasons I gave it my absolute all. I am proud of my accomplishments as a football player on the field and the example I tried to set off of it. Football is a great game that has taught me many valuable lessons, and I look forward to passing on that knowledge to the next generation.”
While Witten was productive upon returning to the Cowboys in 2019, catching 63 passes for 529 yards and four touchdowns, his age-38 season in Las Vegas saw a steep statistical decline. After signing for $4MM in March 2020, Witten caught just 13 passes for 69 yards with the Raiders. Although he did score two TDs — one of which a go-ahead grab late in a shootout against the Chiefs in Vegas — the Raiders had Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller do most of the heavy lifting on the receiving end.
Witten’s one-and-done Raiders run did allow him to surpass 13,000 receiving yards for his career. Witten and Tony Gonzalez are the only tight ends to do that. No other tight end has ventured past 12,000 yards. The reliable possession cog, however, resides much higher on the receptions list. Witten’s 1,228 catches rank fourth all time — behind only Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzgerald and Gonzalez.
A Cowboys third-round pick in 2003, Witten became one of the most reliable players of his era. He produced four 1,000-yard seasons — each during Tony Romo‘s stay as Dallas’ quarterback — and 11 Pro Bowls. That is tied with Bob Lilly for the most in Cowboys history. A Cowboys cog for 16 seasons, Witten owns the team’s records for receptions, receiving yards, games played (255) and games started (245). The veteran’s one-year stay as a Monday Night Football analyst not going especially well will end up merely delaying his Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Coaches, Execs Believe Aaron Rodgers Wants Out Of Green Bay
No matter how hard Aaron Rodgers tries to downplay his comments at his post-NFC Championship Game press conference, it’s clear the speculation isn’t going away anytime soon. Rodgers, of course, raised plenty of eyebrows by saying his future was “uncertain” after the Packers’ heartbreaking loss to the Buccaneers.
Green Bay has gone into damage control mode, with team CEO Mark Murphy declaring emphatically that Rodgers would be back in 2021, and that “we’re not idiots.” But despite all that, coaches and execs around the league remain “convinced a bitter divorce is pending” between the two sides, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes. La Canfora reports that head coaches and GMs told him this, which would obviously be interesting to say the least.
La Canfora’s sources contend there is tension between Rodgers and head coach Matt LaFleur, with one NFL head coach saying “it’s never really been good between him and the coach. It’s been a long feeling-out process, and it looks like it’s over.” If true, it’s a pretty remarkable turn of events considering Rodgers is coming off a season that will see him named league MVP shortly.
One assistant coach said Rodgers’ unhappiness is “the worst kept secret in football” and that he was “sending a signal to the rest of the league” with his comments. One long-time NFL exec says “trust me. The quarterback wants out.” Rodgers’ contract runs through the 2023 season, but La Canfora speculates he could force a trade by threatening to retire if one isn’t granted.
The Packers, if you’ll recall, brought a lot of this drama upon themselves by drafting Jordan Love in the first-round last April. As the Eagles learned the hard way after drafting Jalen Hurts in the second-round, it’s nearly impossible to avoid controversy when drafting a quarterback high with one already on the roster.
The Love pick clearly stung Rodgers at the time, and he responded with by far his best season in years. It’s likely the Packers weren’t expecting that kind of late-career resurgence when drafting Love. It’s rare for there to be this much talk about blowing things up on a team that is coming off back to back NFC Championship Game appearances, but here we are.
Buckle up, because this surely isn’t the last we’ve heard on this situation as we enter a wild offseason where seemingly everything is up in the air.
Aaron Rodgers: My Future Is ‘Uncertain’
The top-seeded Packers lost in devastating fashion to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game, failing to capitalize on three Tom Brady interceptions by making a string of miscues of their own.
While the loss itself was bad enough, Packers fans were left even more stressed after Aaron Rodgers‘ post-game press conference. Rodgers raised quite a few eyebrows during his media availability, saying there are a lot of players on the team with uncertain futures “myself included,” via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. Demovsky says “it’s clear” from his comments that he’s not sure he’ll get another run with the Packers.
Meanwhile veteran Packers reporter Jason Wilde of ESPN tweeted that Rodgers “sure sounded like a guy saying goodbye.” There’s a fair amount of speculation involved here, and it’s certainly possible this turns out to be a big nothing-burger. For his part head coach Matt LaFleur was adamant that he wanted Rodgers back in 2021.
Rodgers is a near-lock to win the NFL’s MVP award for his work this past season, so it’s pretty hard to believe Green Bay brass would be looking to move on even though they did draft Jordan Love in the first-round last April.
The Love situation has always loomed large, but without a preseason or full training camp no one really has any idea how he’s progressed since getting drafted. It’s unclear whether Rodgers was referring to retirement, the Packers moving on, or himself looking to play elsewhere.
In any case, he’s under contract through the 2023 season. He just turned 37 last month, and he certainly didn’t look like he’d started any sort of physical decline this season. We should get some clarifying reporting soon, but at this point it would still be very surprising if anyone other than Rodgers is under center come Week 1. In all likelihood the comments were just the result of emotions running high after a big loss.
Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey Likely To Retire
Even assuming Ben Roethlisberger decides to play another year in 2021, this era of Steelers football is undeniably coming to an end. Long-time center Maurkice Pouncey has told teammates he’s likely retiring, sources told Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).
Dulac adds that barring a change of heart the official decision could come soon. It seemed like this was a strong possibility, especially after Roethlisberger’s actions after their playoff loss to Cleveland seemed to indicate he knew it would be his last game with Pouncey. Assuming nothing changes, it’ll wrap up a truly legendary career in Pittsburgh. Pouncey was the 18th overall pick back in 2010, and has spent his entire decorated career with the team.
He earned a Pro Bowl berth and second-team All-Pro selection as a rookie, and added plenty of other accolades over the next decade. All told, he’ll hang up his cleats having made nine Pro Bowls and five All-Pro teams in 11 seasons. The only two years he didn’t make the Pro Bowl were when he only played one game in 2013 and missed the entire season in 2015.
Outside of those two injury-riddled campaigns he’s been pretty durable, starting at least 13 games in each of the other nine years. Pittsburgh’s O-line as a whole regressed this year, as the once dominant unit is getting up there in age.
It’s the second big retirement of the day after news of Greg Olsen calling it a wrap broke earlier Sunday. All of us here at PFR wish the Florida product all the best with whatever comes next.
Greg Olsen Retires From NFL
Greg Olsen is officially hanging up his cleats. After flirting with retirement the past couple of years the veteran tight end has now decided to call it a career, he announced on a FOX pre-game show.
It was a fitting setting to make the announcement, since Olsen will now begin his post-playing days as an analyst for FOX. “Proud of what I was able to accomplish in this league, proud of the relationships and everything that the game has given me,” Olsen said, via David Newton of ESPN.com. “But sometimes, when it’s time, it’s time and my time in the NFL now has come to an end. I’m excited for the next chapter. … I’ve got it all out of my system.”
The 35-year-old originally entered the league as a first-round pick of the Bears all the way back in 2007. After spending four years in Chicago where he was never featured too heavily, he was traded to the Panthers for a third-round pick. While spending the next nine years in Carolina, he became one of the most consistent and productive tight ends in the league.
From 2014-16, he had at least 77 catches and 1,008 yards in three straight seasons, making the Pro Bowl in all three of those campaigns. He also had at least five touchdowns in eight straight years from 2008-15. Injuries derailed his last few seasons with the Panthers, and he signed with Seattle this past offseason for one last run.
Another foot injury limited him to 11 games with the Seahawks, and although it was initially feared to be season-ending, he managed to battle his way back on the field for the final couple weeks and Seattle’s playoff loss. All of us here at PFR wish the Panthers legend all the best in retirement.
Lions Preparing To Trade Matthew Stafford
After 12 seasons, the Matthew Stafford era in Detroit is set to come to an end. The veteran quarterback has asked the Lions to trade him, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reports.
Having recently hired a new GM and new head coach, the Lions have met with Stafford over the past two weeks. In those meetings, the 32-year-old quarterback has requested a fresh start. The Lions are planning to discuss Stafford with teams in the coming weeks, Pelissero adds. The sides are expected to mutually part ways, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
This news comes a year after Stafford popped up in trade rumors. But previous GM Bob Quinn squashed those, and Stafford’s wife affirmed their desire to stay in Detroit last year. But the Lions struggled again in 2020 and have hired Dan Campbell as HC and Brad Holmes as GM. They are also on the verge of hiring Anthony Lynn as OC.
Campbell would be Stafford’s fourth full-time head coach, and Holmes the third GM in the quarterback’s tenure. The Lions have made the playoffs just three times in Stafford’s career. Both Campbell and Holmes were clued in on the notion Stafford may want out before they signed on with the Lions this month, Justin Rogers of the Detroit News tweets. Stafford suggested after the season a trade may benefit both he and the Lions, and the team agreed to pursue it this week, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press tweets. Stafford, Holmes and Campbell confirmed on a call this week a trade will be the goal, though Rogers adds (via Twitter) the Lions will only deal him if they receive a worthwhile offer.
The Lions hold the No. 7 pick in the upcoming draft. They picked third last year, following a 2019 season in which Detroit lost every game after Stafford was lost for the season midway through, but selected cornerback Jeff Okudah over Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert. This year, it would seem Detroit will be firmly in the market for a first-round QB pick. Though, Trevor Lawrence will be gone by the time Detroit picks. Justin Fields and/or Zach Wilson might be off the board as well.
While Stafford has made just one Pro Bowl in 12 seasons, the former No. 1 overall pick has frequently been placed in difficult situations. The cannon-armed passer has never had a high-end running game and played most of the 2020 season without Kenny Golladay. The Lions now have Golladay and Marvin Jones set for free agency and Stafford on the way out. With Campbell on a six-year contract, a rebuild is here in Detroit.
Stafford was unable to procure the Lions a playoff win, leaving him well behind Hall of Famer Bobby Layne in terms of postseason success, but he owns all the franchise’s passing records. And after an injury-plagued start to his career, Stafford started every game from 2011-18. He returned from the 2019 back injury to start 16 games this season, sporting a 26-10 TD-INT ratio and ranking 15th in QBR. Considering Stafford’s age and talent level, the Lions should be able to obtain a nice trade haul.
Stafford’s 2017 extension runs through the 2022 season. He is due just $9.5MM in 2021 base salary and $12.5MM in 2022. He is also due $10MM roster bonuses in each of the next two years, though in this era, cap numbers of $20MM (2021) and $23MM (’22) are quite manageable for a franchise quarterback. Stafford being due the $10MM bonus on the fifth day of the 2021 league year points to a trade commencing before then.
Teams like the Colts, Patriots, Broncos and Washington are among those who could be considered suitors. Washington just hired Martin Mayhew, who drafted Stafford in 2009, as GM. With Deshaun Watson potentially in the trade mix as well, 2021 is shaping up as a big year for quarterback movement.
Lions, Anthony Lynn Finalizing OC Deal
The Lions will go with the most experienced coach in their offensive coordinator search pool. They are finalizing a deal with Anthony Lynn, Michael Lombardi of The Athletic tweets.
Lynn spent the past four seasons as the Chargers’ head coach and was the Bills’ OC in 2016. Lynn joined several position coaches in the running for the Detroit job and was linked to the Seattle OC position as well. But his bounce-back opportunity will come in the Motor City.
This will be a reunion between Lynn and new Lions HC Dan Campbell. During Campbell’s playing career, he was with the Cowboys in 2005. Lynn coached Dallas’ running backs that season, during a 14-year run as an NFL running backs coach. This connection helped bring Lynn to Detroit, with Adam Schefter of ESPN.com noting (via Twitter) Lynn wanted to work with Campbell and DC Aaron Glenn again. Officially hired as Lions DC Saturday, Glenn was also on the 2005 Cowboys’ roster.
Lynn, 52, beat out Ravens QBs coach James Urban, former Jets OC John Morton, Steelers wideouts coach Ike Hilliard and Bills QBs coach Ken Dorsey for this post. The former Chargers HC brings far more experience than this lot of position coaches and will be in position to call plays again — something he did not do this past season with the Chargers.
While Lynn was not the Bolts’ primary play-caller during his stay as their head coach, each of the team’s four offenses in this time ranked in the top 11 in total yardage. This past season began a promising new chapter for the Chargers, who saw Justin Herbert break out quicker than expected — en route to becoming the Offensive Rookie of the Year favorite — under the tutelage of Lynn and OC Shane Steichen.
The veteran coach will now attempt to lead a Lions offense in transition. Matthew Stafford remains under contract but has been mentioned in trade speculation, with the Lions having hired a new coach and GM this month. The Lions also have starting wideouts Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones set for free agency.