by Jay Glazer

HE'S NUMBER ONE

Glazer: The great debate is over. The Lions settled on QB Matthew Stafford as the No. 1 pick in Saturday's NFL draft, sources told Jay Glazer. More ... : Matt Millen is gone, and the Lions have a new coach, franchise QB and logo. Alex Marvez says it's time to let Detroit get a fresh start. Mock Draft: The Rams are now on the clock.Scout.com pegs the St. Louis pick in its latest Mock Draft. More ....

It is a six-year, $78 million deal, with $41.7 million guaranteed. Stafford's agents confirmed the agreement.

The two sides have been working on a deal diligently for the past 72 hours.

The team had been negotiating with Stafford and Baylor offensive tackle Jason Smith before ultimately deciding on Stafford as the target.

Quarterback Matt Ryan, the No. 3 pick in last year's draft, was signed to a $72 million, six-year contract with $34.75 million guaranteed by the Atlanta Falcons.

Stafford has been consistently mentioned as a possible No. 1 overall pick since he announced after the season that he would be leaving Athens a year early to enter the draft.

"I am a competitive guy; I don't think the Lions are that far off," Stafford said in an interview earlier this month with Scout.com. "Yeah, it would be a heck of a challenge to be able to go in there and make something special happen."

Detroit desperately needs a quarterback to help turn around the NFL's first 0-16 team, which has had the worst eight-year stretch in the league since World War II, and is turning to Stafford after he was a starter in each of his three seasons at Georgia.

At 6-foot-3, Stafford has the size needed to be a franchise NFL quarterback, and the arm strength to go with it. He threw for 3,459 yards and 25 touchdowns in his junior year at Georgia, ending his career with 250 yards and three TDs in winning the Capital One Bowl MVP.

Eight of the past 11 players taken first overall in the NFL have been QBs, and half of them either haven't or didn't pan out for the teams that took them.

For every Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer, guys like Tim Couch and David Carr have shown there are no guarantees.

Stafford might get a chance to initially learn from the sidelines, backing up Daunte Culpepper.

First-year coach Jim Schwartz has said Detroit's staff studied Stafford extensively on film.

"We've seen every pass he's thrown in the last two years, and that's where you learn about his decision-making ability," Schwartz said last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.