Online sportsbook Bovada recently listed the 49ers with the best odds to land Stafford, and Ian Rapoport said on NFL Network that nearly a third of the teams in the league have already reached out to the Lions.
"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," reports Cohn.
The beat writer states that the source did not divulge what kind of compensation the 49ers might need to surrender for Stafford, but notes that general manager John Lynch and company would likely have to at least send Detroit the No. 12 overall pick. It's also unknown which destinations Stafford prefers.
Stafford will turn 33 years old on Super Bowl Sunday. David Lombardi of The Athletic points out that Stafford's post-trade salary-cap hit would be about $20 million in 2021 and about $23 million in 2022. Jimmy Garoppolo's cap hit is about $27 million for each of the next two seasons.
Stafford passed for 4,084 yards with 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2020. He has passed for over 4,000 yards in eight of his 12 NFL seasons and appeared in 16 games during nine of his past 10 seasons.