Detroit Lions: The big Matthew Stafford conundrum

As the Detroit Lions prepare for their dress rehearsal against the Buffalo Bills, the debate about what’s up with Matthew Stafford rages on.

This Friday night the Detroit Lions will host the Buffalo Bills. It’s what is considered the dress rehearsal for the regular season. This is usually our lone opportunity to see the starters on the field for an extended period of time in the exhibition season. Our one chance to get a look at the actual product before the season begins.

But maybe not this year.

The second year of the Matt Patricia era has had some changes from its initial version last season. It’s been described as a less strenuous version of boot camp. As a matter of fact, Patricia himself has been more hands-off.

Part of that has been Patricia’s own physical limitations this year after the surgery to clean out his Achilles tendon and foot which has kept him in a protective boot and from being able to freely roam the practice field, but another part of it has been his commitment to improving upon last years performance of how he handled the team.

One of the most noticeable differences has been the lack of starters getting game time over the course of the first two weeks of the preseason.

Now, this isn’t an end of the world issue. After all, one of the biggest goals of the preseason is to avoid injuries. So far the biggest injury to occur was backup quarterback Tom Savage suffering a concussion against the Patriots in the exhibition opener.

That, of course, led to the signing of free-agent passer Josh Johnson who took a crash course in Darrell Bevell’s offense and it looked like it in last week’s loss to the Houston Texans. Meanwhile, David Fales did shine in his second game action, but there are still questions surrounding the Lions depth at quarterback. And while that is the case, it would also appear there are questions surrounding the Lions starting signal-caller, Matthew Stafford as well.