Detroit Lions: Position by position breakdown of the 53-man roster
By Reuben Gasee
Quarterbacks
- Matthew Stafford #9
- Chase Daniel #4
After missing the second half of 2019 with a back injury, Matthew Stafford is back, fully rested and healthy as he hopes to guide the Lions to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Before he went down with an injury, Stafford was on pace for a career-year throwing for 2,499 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 64.3% of passes. Along with this, he was averaging the most yards per throw in his career with an average of 8.6 and had the highest QB rating with a mark of 106.0. While that rating would have been hard to sustain over a whole season, it just shows how great of a signal-caller he is and how important he is to the Lions.
When Stafford went down with an injury, the performance from the backup quarterbacks wasn’t great which the front office made a priority to find a quality backup to have into place in case #9 goes down with another injury.
They went out and signed Chase Daniel who has done well as a backup quarterback his whole career. In three games with the Chicago Bears last season, he completed 70.3% of passes for 435 yards along with three touchdowns and two interceptions. In his career which has consisted of 65 games, he has a completion rate of 68.3% while throwing for 1,430 yards but a measly seven touchdowns over five interceptions.
Stafford will be on a mission this year as he will aim to show the doubters that he’s back healthy and that he can win with this team. Stafford will be critical in the Lions’ quest to winning games.