Detroit Lions: Matthew Stafford and the ‘Great Quarterback’ myth

Summing up Stafford

Without question, some Detroit Lions fans will refuse any argument where we don’t mention that eleven years is a long career to have never won a playoff game or a division title. Granted, it is. For those, we’d also like to remind the circumstances that brought John Matthew Stafford to Detroit and what’s happened since.

We were a winless team the year before he arrived. We were not winless because our quarterback play was poor but winless because the entire team was poor.

The Detroit Lions have since competed for the division title with Stafford, finishing second four times between 2011 and 2017. Not to mention, the game where they led the Green Bay Packers for 60 minutes but the Packers got bailed out by a phantom facemask call. Of course, how do you not stop that Hail-Mary?

“Stafford has padded his stats and benefited from Calvin Johnson! “, some say. That’s true that he benefited from Johnson’s elite athleticism but name a winning quarterback who didn’t have a very good go-to receiver, a great running game, or a dominant defense. Some had all three and we just don’t mention it usually.

Joe Montana was great! Aaron Rodgers is great! Patrick Mahomes is great! Let’s not forget they needed help, too, people.

In Stafford’s first healthy year, he guided the Lions to a playoff appearance and had a very good game but the team couldn’t stop Drew Brees and the recent champion New Orleans Saints. In 2014, the team was in it’s best position but offensive injuries hampered the best team we’ve seen in Detroit for a long time. Ultimately, that team didn’t have enough left on the field to overcome the deficit, and the referees they faced in the postseason.

The bottom line is that few quarterbacks have been as productive and kept their team competitive as many years as Matthew Stafford has with as little as he has had around him.

What we can say is that if this year’s incarnation of the Detroit Lions isn’t a playoff-bound team there could be more turnover. If that happens, we don’t know if Stafford survives for long. He would still have some trade value and a new regime would be anxious to implement their own plan, which would likely treat Stafford as a stop-gap at best.

With the Detroit Lions, you cannot take much for granted. That is the certainty of being a Lions fan. However, the cast in Detroit is shaping up once again to being better than the previous lists of players around Stafford.

Stafford has several good running backs, including rookie D’Andre Swift and Kerryon Johnson, a good receiver corps featuring a top-10 receiver in Kenny Golladay, and the offensive line is a work-in-progress but has decent talent to go with veterans Frank Ragnow and Taylor Decker.

The defense looks to have made some changes that will hopefully get some stops when needed, unlike the 31st-ranked team from 2019. Rookie first-rounder, cornerback Jeff Okudah, veteran cornerback Desmond Trufant,  linebacker Jamie Collins, and defensive end Trey Flowers should anchor an improved unit.

Overall, this is the kind of team that should give Matthew Stafford a chance to prove his worth to the city of Detroit. Let’s stop blaming Stafford and espousing poor theories to discredit his contributions. The whole team needs to play better and win together.