Jon Gruden shares his evaluation of QB Brad Kaaya and what he has to do to improve his game for the NFL. (2:13)

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Matthew Stafford doesn’t feel old.

Sure, he could sign his third lucrative NFL contract by the end of 2017. And he became a father for the first time earlier this offseason. But none of that makes him think he’s getting up there in NFL years.

So when a reporter asked him about being past the midway point in his career recently, he scoffed. He said he wanted to play a long time. Then when there was more joking about his age, Stafford fired back with some playful sarcasm.

“That hurt a little bit,” Stafford said. “I’m still in my 20s, man.”

Yet the NFL draft might have made Stafford feel the tiniest bit older. The Detroit Lions drafted a quarterback for the second straight year in the sixth round, taking Miami’s Brad Kaaya. While neither Kaaya nor Jake Rudock is expected to threaten Stafford for his starting job, Kaaya's comments did show how long Stafford has been in the league.

When Kaaya was in high school, one of the quarterbacks he used the most while playing the Madden video game series was Matthew Stafford.

“Matt Stafford is a guy who I watched since he was in college, and I’ve always been a big fan of him. And he was one of those guys that when I was in high school, I used to play with him on Madden,” Kaaya said. “He was always one of my favorite guys to watch.

“Even over these past few months, I spent a lot of time watching film of Matt Stafford and just how he operates; and even when [Miami] coach [Mark] Richt came in, he showed me some of Matt’s film, as well, and just how he moves in the pocket and how he’s able to operate.”

Matthew Stafford is coming to terms with being labeled a seasoned veteran as the oldest quarterback on the Lions' roster. Raj Mehta/USA TODAY Sports

After seeing him from afar and controlling a virtual Stafford, Kaaya will now be working with the actual, real-life version of the Lions quarterback on a daily basis. And he’s hoping he’ll be able to pick up as much as possible from Stafford as he tries to win the job to back up the starter.

For the first time in Stafford’s career, he’s without a more veteran presence behind him at quarterback, after the Lions decided to not bring back Dan Orlovsky or sign another older quarterback.

But that doesn’t mean Stafford is thinking about retirement. Not even close.

“I want to play for a long time,” Stafford said after he was asked about being past the midway point in his career. “But I know what you’re saying. I have, obviously; I got asked about it earlier, just being the oldest guy in the room now at the quarterback position.

“Been here about as long as anybody, besides maybe [long snapper] [Don] Muhlbach, maybe a couple other guys here and there. I feel like some of the new guys that come in or young guys, whatever it is, they can always come to me and ask me what it’s like here or how do we do this or how do we do that. Maybe in the past, when I was younger, that wasn’t the case. So my role is changing for sure.”

Even though he might not feel old, look old or want to be old, Stafford understands why the questions are being asked. Even at age 29, and with a rookie quarterback who used to pretend to be him in a video game working behind him, Stafford now is his position group’s oldest man.