Golden Tate trade
Going into the trade deadline, there were plenty of rumors the Lions will part ways with Golden Tate. Majority of fans were not keen to the fact the Lions will trade their “Golden” boy, so when it was announced he got traded to the Philadelphia Eagles; nobody knew what to think.
The Lions were still in the hunt for a playoff spot at the time of the trade. So trading away probably their best offensive weapon for a third-round pick came with a lot of questions and head scratching. You could say this is when the storm got out of control.
The next two games against division foes Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears showed exactly how valuable Golden Tate was to this offense. Tate was Stafford’s safety valve for quite some time whenever he got into trouble.
You take away a key part to the offense there will be some growing pains and pain is exactly what Stafford felt. Stafford ended up on his his back 16 times through those two games.
The Lions had to quickly think on how to protect their quarterback. The answer would be a change to their offensive scheme. The Lions would go from a deep attack offense to a dink and dunk one. The sacks went down a tad, but what came with it could be much worse. The play calling became conservative and more predictable relying on quick short passes.
With that, Stafford is completing 67 percent of his passes, but only averaging about seven yards per pass attempt which would be the lowest in his career. As a result, this has made Jim Bob Cooter’s seat very hot with his questionable/predictable play calling. It would not surprise me, if they move on from him come next season.