How close was the Washington Football Team to landing a deal with Detroit for quarterback Matthew Stafford?
According to Albert Breer in The MMQB, just hours before the Lions consummated a deal with the Rams, Washington was sitting alongside Carolina as the favorites to land the soon-to-be 33-year-old passer.
Per Breer, both clubs had offered Detroit their first-round picks in the upcoming draft, with Carolina owning the eighth pick and Washington the 19th. Carolina's proposal "came with a later pick."
Washington's package included a third-round pick.
"Anyway, by midday on Saturday, Washington and Carolina had emerged as the favorites to land Stafford, and the Lions came to the realization that a deal could be in the offing," writes Breer. "But if they'd guessed at that point where Stafford was going, they'd have probably been wrong."
In the end, the Rams were willing to give up more, including a starting quarterback of their own in Jared Goff, two future first-round picks (2022, 2023) and a third-round pick this year. That last one somewhat offsets, as LA will earn a third-round compensatory pick for Detroit poaching Brad Holmes, whom the Lions hired as their GM last month after eight years as the Rams' director of college scouting.
And with that, Washington's search for a starting quarterback moves on.
