The biggest sticking point that came out of Quinn’s press conference might have been his unwavering confidence in Matthew Stafford. The Lions signal-caller suffered through a down season and has received possibly more than his share of the blame.
That doesn’t mean that Stafford is without blame or should in anyway not be held accountable for his poor play. However, it also shouldn’t be lost on us how well he performed early in the season.
Sure he was horrible in the opener when the New York Jets claimed they knew every play the Lions were running, but in weeks two through seven he completed 70.9% of his passes with 11 touchdowns, only one interception and a rating of 115.02 which isn’t shabby.
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The Lions also averaged 28 points a game during that stretch and went 3-2. The defense gave up 30 and 26 points respectively in the two losses.
However, in weeks eight through 16, we’ll excuse the season ending route of the Packers when everything the Lions did worked, Stafford completed 65.5% of his passes with seven scoring strikes and six picks for an 81.8 rating.
On the surface the numbers don’t seem as horrible as it looked, but when you factor in that the Lions averaged 15.1 points a game, not to mention how often Stafford was throwing short passes during this stretch which helped augment his completion percentage, it was every bit as bad as it felt to Lions fans everywhere.
Now the Golden Tate trade, combined with Marvin Jones and Kerryon Johnson both missing the majority of the second half of the season on injured reserve didn’t help. The fact that former offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter also had a tough season certainly hindered him as well, but when you’re selected number one overall, the expectations are understandably high.
Who Matt Patricia hires as the Lions new offensive coordinator will be monumental in getting more out of the Lions offense and Stafford. I agree with Bob Quinn that Matthew Stafford can lead the Lions to the Super Bowl, but I also believe that he needs play-makers around him on offense and a championship caliber defense in order to make it happen.
From what we’ve seen, it just can’t be assumed anymore that Stafford can carry a team like Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees or Tom Brady. Yet a player like Stafford that has as much arm talent as he has and works as hard as he does, given a good offensive system, more help at the skill positions and a defense that can throttle opposing teams, could quarterback the Lions to the Super Bowl.
I mean, if Trent Dilfer could do it, why can’t Matthew Stafford?
The truth is that Bob Quinn, Matt Patricia and Matthew Stafford will all be on the hot seat until the Lions play like contenders and make a playoff run.
Bob Quinn has been mostly revered by Lions fans although he still has his detractors, but there is still a great divide in those who don’t believe in his head coach or quarterback.
Quinn’s vision of where this franchise is at and what they need in order to win it all may in theory be correct, but it will only come to fruition if Matt Patricia and Matthew Stafford do their jobs well making the Lions legitimate perennial contenders and hopefully even Super Bowl champions. Only then will the stink of this season and the ghosts of ‘same old Lions’ past be truly exorcised.