Will Matthew Stafford be the next Lion great to retire early?

With Matthew Stafford injured for over a month, reports are looming that he may hang up the cleats at seasons end. Is this the end for the gunslinger?

Most Detroit Lions fans cringe when they hear the word retirement as it probably leaves a bitter taste in their mouth. We’ve already seen the hardships of early retirement from Lion greats like running back Barry Sanders and wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Could we see the same thing happen to current Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford?

Sanders and Megatron retired for two main reasons: injuries and losing the will and passion to play the game of football. The latter being a byproduct of getting beat up every season as well as the inability to win ball games as a team. While Stafford’s back issues have been his first major injury in quite some time, losing has always been present throughout his career.

Drafted in 2009, Stafford has put up some amazing statistical years, having posted 4000-plus yards passing in seven of his 11 seasons. Despite his stellar stats, there’s one category that remains empty for Stafford … and that’s playoff wins.

Stafford has only appeared in three playoff games in his entire career, losing all of them on the road. Granted, in 2014 against the Dallas Cowboys, that game had a ton of controversy. But still, no playoff wins.

To be fair, football is a team game. One guy can’t completely carry your team to the promised land, no matter who it is. Bad management has been a huge part of the entire organization’s struggles to get over the hump.

While under center in Detroit, Stafford has had three different head coaches, three different general managers, and four different offensive coordinators. Long story short, consistency of the organization has been a huge battle throughout Stafford’s career, and the product produced on the field reflects that.

Each season, it feels like the Lions fix one problem, only to have another pop-up. One year, the offense is bad, but the defense is good. Then the next, the roles are flipped.

For the longest time, one huge knock of the organization was the absence of a consistent running game. In the past couple of seasons, ironically, the rushing attack has been pretty decent. Not great by any means, but definitely light years better from where they were half a decade ago.

The hiring of head coach Matt Patricia was meant to be a move to propel the Lions towards eliteness. But instead, they’ve seemed to backtrack towards the Jim Schwartz era. With this being said, Stafford may be a quiet and levelheaded guy towards the media. You have to wonder though … when is enough, finally enough for him?

Stafford has been through 11 seasons of mediocrity, battling inconsistency from the team’s front office. The future seems murky for Detroit. Each season, the franchise can’t seem to put all the pieces together.

Ironically, just like Sanders and Megatron, Stafford finds himself to be a big fish in a small pond. I’d be very disappointed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if No. 9 hung up the cleats after this season.

With Stafford being sidelined for the last six weeks, he’s had time to evaluate his current situation. What if this time off feels good to him? The 11-year veteran passer has a wife (who had brain surgery in April to remove a tumor) and two young twin daughters waiting at home. You know he’s thinking about them and the amount of time he would be able to spend with them if he retired.

We’ve already seen numerous NFL players retire early for injury-related reasons, whether it’s too many injuries, or just to prevent wear and tear on their body. While Stafford may not report every injury he’s gotten over the years, we know how much of a beating he takes back there. Having a serious back injury, you have to wonder if Stafford could be eyeing towards the future.

Obviously, Matthew Stafford wants to have a life after football. But, at the same time, he’s only 31-years old. Barring no major drop-off in play, he very well could have another 7 to10 seasons left in him. Only time will tell …