Late Wednesday night, Bernie Smilovitz of WDIV-Detroit reported that the Detroit Lions have been in talks for weeks about a potential trade involving QB Matthew Stafford.

That report was addressed by a tweet Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press received from Lions GM Bob Quinn which simply said the report was “100% False!!”

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Just moments ago, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained in detail exactly why many of these false reports are surfacing around the NFL.

From Pro Football Talk:

The out-of-the-Honolulu-Blue report from WDIV-TV in Detroit that the Lions are engaged in trade talks regarding quarterback Matthew Stafford likely comes from the pre-pre-pre-free agency efforts of agents who represent other quarterbacks to line up deals for their own clients by scaring away other agents who represent other quarterbacks from potential landing spots.

By, for example, spreading the word that a team like the Chargers or Colts or Buccaneers will be trading for Stafford, the agent can then (in theory) work on getting a deal done for his or her own client with one of those teams while other agents may steer clear.

It goes like this: Agent John Doe wants to get his client Joe Turdball (a potential future Hall of Famer, as discussed in a recent edition of PFT Live) signed by the Buccaneers. Other agents representing Turdball’s peers want their own clients to be signed by the Buccaneers. If John Doe can make those other agents think that the Buccaneers may trade for Matthew Stafford, the other agents may waver just enough to allow a preliminary deal to get done between the Bucs and Mr. Turdball.

It’s an incredibly low-tech approach, and it likely won’t do much to get agents to double-clutch. But that’s what agents are doing, we’re told, as an unprecedented number of quarterbacks become available in free agency or otherwise.

Florio absolutely nailed it and this is exactly why it is important to just be patient and wait to see how things play out.

–Excerpt courtesy of Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk– LINK