SOURCE: 49ers Have the Inside Edge to Trade for Matthew Stafford

A source extremely close to the situation says the San Francisco 49ers are the favorites to land Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Grant Cohn | Jan 27, 2021

As teams line up to trade for Matthew Stafford, a source extremely close to the situation said that while nothing is done or close to being finalized, the San Francisco 49ers seem to have the inside edge to land Stafford in a trade with the Detroit Lions.

The source did not say what the 49ers would have to give the Lions to get Stafford, although it’s presumed the 49ers would have to trade at least their first-round pick this year. Nor did the source say whether the 49ers are Stafford’s first choice. He most likely would love their head coach, Kyle Shanahan, plus their star players such as George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, but probably wouldn’t love the California state taxes.

Still, the 49ers probably would give Stafford his best chance to win the Super Bowl within the next couple years.

Stafford, 32, is signed through 2022. He never has won a playoff game in his career, but he still is a very good quarterback, and he’s not cheap. Plus Detroit is on the verge of a mega rebuild. So he’s a bad fit for the Lions. Which is why they and Stafford recently mutually agreed to part ways.

Stafford has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in a season eight times, including this past season when he threw for 4,084 yards. The only quarterbacks in 49ers history who have thrown for more than 4,000 yards in a season are Steve Young and Jeff Garcia. So Stafford would give the 49ers something they haven’t had in decades.

And the 49ers would give Stafford something he hasn’t had since college -- a quality running game and a quality defense.

Stay tuned as this story develops.

Published Jan 27, 2021

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.