The Detroit Lions have begun discussing an extension with Matthew Stafford.

"Matthew Stafford is our quarterback, and we hope is our quarterback for a long time," Lewand said, via MLive.com. "The reason to explore a contract extension with Matthew is to fulfill that goal of having him be our quarterback for a long time. It's not a short-term look at the salary cap.

"That's the wrong way to look at that. When you look at extending somebody like Matthew, he's not going to take less money to extend. That's a very short-term focus to look at."

Stafford will earn $12 million in 2013, but his cap hit is at $20.3 million.