Joe Flacco and Tony Romo got their new contracts, but we aren’t done hearing about quarterbacks cashing in with their current teams.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are expected to settle on a deal that keeps Rodgers in Green Bay with plenty of greenbacks. Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff has made it known that the Falcons are planning on locking up Matt Ryan and the Lions have made similar statements about Matthew Stafford.
Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press checks in on the status of contract talks between Stafford on the team Sunday and finds that they are “starting to simmer.” Birkett writes that it is “just a matter of time” before the two sides reach a deal that satisfies everybody’s interests. In the meantime, Stafford has stayed in Detroit instead of continuing to work out elsewhere as he did in past seasons. That decision earned him praise from team president Tom Lewand.
“There is not a guy that’s done more for this franchise in this off-season than Matthew Stafford,” Lewand said. “The guy’s been in the building every day. He’s been living here the entire off-season. He’s been working out, he’s helped us recruit free agents, he’s been involved on a daily basis in trying to get ready for the season, and he would do anything to help us be successful.”
Stafford isn’t going to get as much as Rodgers will command from the Packers, but the other deals signed this offseason should provide some framework of what his deal will wind up looking like in Detroit. And it continues to look like that deal will come before the Lions start the 2013 season.