With The Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills In The Can, All Eyes Are On Matt Stafford.

As it should be. He’s the number 1 overall draft pick.

Tom Kowalski rips him a new one on mlive.com

The AP opinions are fairly coarse as well.

From what I saw, he’s still pretty green. His decision making sucks and this is in the face of a Bills team that didn’t really use any of the defensive starters in this fourth, and most pointless, preseason outing. For every pass that I saw him hit the reciever in stride and right between the numbers, I saw passes floated too high or thrown too hard and bad decision making. On a positive note, Stafford really showed his bulk and muscle by making a shoe string tackle on his interception play. Atoning for his sins and looking decent doing it as it would be. I still expect a little more polish from a first overall pick, but it is what it is then, isn’t it…

There were a great many sloppy penalties, namely that pass where Matt nailed Megatron in stride, right between the numbers in the end zone for it all to be washed to a repeat first down on offsetting penalties. Stafford put the ball up too high for Casey Fitzsimmons and lead to him out stretching too far and getting hurt.

So we come to the obvious question:

Who is the Detroit Lions Starting Quarterback.

Fact is that I’m about as sure as the Lions are. They don’t know. Schwartz is rubbing his temples on the plane, trying to figure out what the hell will be the best direction for this ball club. Culpepper can put you in the best position to win now. But Culpepper isn’t going to be around for long and that is a situation barring injury. Culpepper gets hurt and does so often. It’s been the nagging plague of his career, so in reality, Stafford will end up starting later in the season anyway.

We have a few pieces now. Calvin, Kevin Smith and Pettigrew can help you put up some points. Delmas, Foot and Peterson can help you stop hemorrhaging points on Defense. We might be able to eek out a victory or two, depending on who the team we’re playing is and how hard they happen to be playing that particular Sunday. It’s been said that any first place team is 2 injuries away from being a last place team. I agree with this. What looks like a beast on the schedule now may not be so intimidating by week 7.

I’m beginning to lean to the “Throw Stafford IN” camp. Why not? Culpepper is a seasoned veteran and he hasn’t really shown that he can take the reins. He should have looked like the outright starter those first 3 games and yet he hasn’t. What has he left in the tank?

We’ve got 6 years and a dump truck full of money invested in Stafford, throw him in the deep end and see if he swims.