No timeline for Stafford extension, ‘no preference’ for when it gets done

During last week’s Member Summit, the Lions unveiled a new set of uniforms, but before the big reveal, many Lions fans were wondering just how long Matthew Stafford would be wearing the new threads.

Before the the NFL Combine, Bob Quinn made himself available to the media for questions, and a question nestled behind all of those thoughts of free agency and mock drafts was the idea of a contract extension for the franchise quarterback. While Quinn said the team had yet to engage in talks with Matthew’s people, it seemed like it was down the list of priorities that Quinn had drawn up for himself:

I think that’s something that eventually we will get to. We’ll see how that goes. We’re kind of taking it one step at a time with the current free agent class, the current draft class.

Take it back to last week’s Member Summit and Quinn was faced with the same question during a Q&A panel. While he said in March that it was “unrealistic” to expect talks of an extension to start in April, or May even, Quinn confirmed that the Lions and Stafford’s representatives had opened a line of dialogue:

With the zany period of free agency over and the draft just nine days away, Stafford’s extension is seemingly rising up the rank of priorities as other phases of the offseason are getting crossed off. During Tuesday’s press conference, the media was interested in Stafford’s feelings about staying in Detroit long term.

“I would love to,” said Stafford in regards to whether or not it was his preference to be here long term. “I’ve had a really good time playing here.”

Many of the questions Tuesday afternoon centered around how long he’d like to stay in Detroit, but in terms of a timeline for a deal to get done, Stafford is leaving that up to his agent, Tom Condon.

“That’s why I have an agent. That’s why I hired Tom [Condon]. He’s done a good job for me the last two times, for my rookie year and the second one I signed, so hopefully we’ll get something done.”

Stafford, at this point, is pretty removed from discussions of a new deal, but he has talked with both Quinn and Caldwell about his contract. “We haven’t set a firm timeline on anything” said Stafford, but with discussions ahead of schedule according to Quinn’s timeline he set back in March, a huge payday is on the horizon: