Why the Detroit Lions must trade Matthew Stafford for Tom Brady

On Sunday, the New England Patriots will beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.

A day or two later, the Detroit Lions will reveal the NFL’s worst-kept secret and announce the hiring of Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia as their head coach.

As soon as Patricia is hired, he and general manager Bob Quinn should immediately begin plans to trade Matthew Stafford to the Patriots in exchange for Tom Brady.

All right, all right. Settle down.

If you’re a Lions fan or a Patriots fan, you’re probably hyperventilating right now. Take it easy and just breathe. If you’re not feeling well, put your head between your legs and consult your physician before reading the rest of this column. Side effects may include finally seeing the light, coming to your senses and agreeing with me.

More Lions:

Feeling better? Good. I promise I’ll unpack all of this for you. It’s going to be OK.

The reason for the trade

Let me start by saying this isn’t about Stafford. A lot of people think I don’t like him because occasionally I’m a teensy bit critical of him. But that’s not true. I do like Stafford. We get along fine and we even have a lot of stuff in common. We both like Ferraris and we have exactly the same number of playoff wins.

Now, the trade. Like any possible trade, it seems ridiculous and impossible — until it happens. Like the Green Bay Packers trading Brett Favre. Like the New York Jets trading Bill Belichick. Like the Lions trading Bobby Layne. No one sees a big trade coming, until it happens.

I'll take a stab at what the trade could look like. Quinn knows Belichick, his old boss, really well. Trading Brady would be enormously unpopular in New England. So Quinn would have to offer Belichick something he couldn’t refuse: immediate help and hope for the future. That would come in the form of Stafford, both a first- and second-round draft pick, and probably a high-caliber player like Glover Quin or T.J. Lang.

Do you think that’s too much? If this were 2017, would you have swapped Stafford, Ziggy Ansah and the picks that turned out to be Jarrad Davis and Teez Tabor for the quarterback who has his team in the Super Bowl for a second straight year?

So what would the Lions get in return? Just Brady, the greatest quarterback who ever lived and a former Michigan Wolverine. Used to wear No. 10. Some of you might remember. Team president Rod Wood could instantly charge double for tickets and he would have to build an annex onto Ford Field to accommodate the extra seating requirements. It would be called the Newer New Ford Field.

But why would this happen? Why should either side want this to happen?

Simple. The Patriots and the Lions both win. Let’s start from the side that’s holding all the cards: Belichick and the Patriots. Brady turns 41 in August and he has two more years on his contract. There are questions about whether he’s considering retirement, which he’s only encouraging with his “Tom vs. Time” Facebook series, and the Patriots seem to have no succession plan at quarterback.

Belichick already knows the ending of “Tom vs. Time” — Time will win, eventually. If we know anything about Belichick, it’s that he always has a plan. He wouldn’t have traded Jimmy Garropolo and Jacoby Brissett this season if he had any doubt about Brady returning and a strong idea about his next move at QB.

Belichick’s plan is almost certainly not as simple as drafting a quarterback and hoping he develops. He knows he has a willing and familiar trade partner in Quinn, whom he fleeced with the Kyle Van Noy deal. Getting Stafford would give Belichick the best combination of a quarterback who is flirting with elite status, has experience but is still on the young side — he turns 30 next week — and is locked up for the next five years.

You also have to consider the ESPN article that was published in early January. The growing discord between Brady, Belichick and owner Robert Kraft was detailed in a long story that wondered “is this the beginning of the end” of the trio’s time together. There’s disharmony on any football team, but I believe there’s something stronger at work in New England. Belichick has never been the warm-and-fuzzy sentimental type. If he landed Stafford, a player of Ansah's or Quin's caliber and some high draft picks, and won without Brady, he would prove once and for all that he and he alone had orchestrated all of the Patriots’ winning.

How about the Lions’ side? Why would they mortgage their future by dealing Stafford?

Because Quinn and Patricia are trying to recreate the Patriot Way. But recreating the Patriot Way without one of the two most important Patriots is folly. It’s the reason it hasn’t worked anywhere else. Stafford is a good quarterback, but he’s no Brady. And don’t forget Stafford not only hasn’t won anything, but he’s gotten one coaching staff, two head coaches, a general manager and a team president fired.

But, really, could this ever happen?

So which scenario do you think is more likely?

Scenario A: A first-time head coach will lead Stafford and the Lions to years and years of success.

Or scenario B: A first-time head coach finds instant success with a Hall of Fame quarterback who is familiar with him, the GM, the organization’s Patriot Way philosophy and even George Godsey, a former Patriots assistant whom the Lions reportedly just promoted to QB coach, which is the No. 2 offensive coaching job.

Think about it. The reason the Patriot Way has never worked anywhere else is because it’s a lot like trying to do “Hamlet” without Hamlet. Teams can try to copy the Patriots’ versatility and philosophy all they want, but without Brady or Belichick, it will never work.

If you believe in the discord happening in New England, this is the very small window anyone has to finally break up the Patriots’ dynasty. And the Lions, with Quinn and Patricia, would be the team best suited for making that happen.

Will this happen? I doubt it because there are too many complications and details that can kill the trade at several junctures. But mostly I doubt it because I don't think Quinn and Patricia would be willing to be bold and take a big risk.

If Quinn and Patricia truly want to be great, they have to be willing to risk everything for a Super Bowl victory. And this is the kind of deal that could do it.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

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