Daunte Culpepper Could Spice Things Up For a Team Looking for a Quality QB

Daunte Culpepper had better not get too comfortable in his Honolulu blue jersey this season.

After head coach Jim Schwartz made the call to start Matthew Stafford at quarterback from day one, Culpepper’s presence is suddenly much less valuable to the Lions...except maybe on the trade market.

Of course, what if the Lions are just testing Stafford out? They could pull him and send in the veteran, Matt Leinart-style.

If you follow the cues, Stafford is in for good.

According to Schwartz, starting Stafford “isn’t an experiment. He’s our starting quarterback.”

But are the Lions interested in shopping Culpepper instead of keeping him on as a reliable, steady backup to Stafford?

It’s possible that the Lions are interested in keeping him on, but Schwartz seems to think “He’s back” and that “he did everything to win the job.”

So, Stafford is “our starting quarterback” and Culpepper “is back?”

Who is Schwartz trying to convince? It sounds an awful lot like he’s sending out a press release to the other 31 teams: “If you need a starting quarterback, we have one sitting on the bench here, available cheap!”

Under normal circumstances, Culpepper would be a tough sell. After years of injuries, decline, a retirement, and then half of a subpar season playing about 50 pounds overweight, he came back strong, in great shape, and reportedly playing some of his best football in years. Then he lost the starting job to a rookie quarterback anyway.

But then, Culpepper looked more than adequate in the preseason, which is more than some teams can say about their projected starter (I’m looking at you, Denver Broncos).

The X-factor in all this is Drew Stanton. After Stanton suffered another knee injury, Schwartz avoided putting him on injured reserve. Schwartz has said that Stanton’s injury is minor and that he should be back within the first half of the season.

If Culpepper is traded, Stanton becomes the backup, which may be well warranted, since he was arguably the most impressive and most successful quarterback in the preseason.

But whether Culpepper is traded or not may depend on whether Schwartz and Co. are confident with increasing Stanton’s role, which they will be unable to do until he’s healthy again.

The problem with that is money.

If the Lions were to trade Culpepper, they would want to do it before the start of the regular season, when Culpepper is due a large roster bonus.

But beyond the difficulty of convincing another team to effectively pick up his bonus in the next two days, Stanton will not be ready in that time, which will force the Lions to possibly pick up two quarterbacks to back up Stafford while Stanton heals (if he heals).

Still, the question of trading Culpepper is almost certainly when, not if. The Lions have taken care of their quarterback issues with Stafford, for better or worse, but there are still holes to be filled all over the team.

Culpepper now represents a vehicle with which to fill those holes, either with players or picks.