Matt Stafford is the suckiest suck to ever suck

[Forsh]

As much as some want to blow me off 2011 was the only year of Stafford's career he had a running game with above average YPC. 2012 saw the loss of Best and the team being insistent on running Leshoure into the back of the line. As much as people want to act like that doesn't make a massive difference it does.

It goes both ways, but I hear ya

[JGSpartan]

It does cut both ways for sure and they play into eachother but Stafford has thrown the ball well enough including deep balls to give the running game a chance and it's been continuously bad. Just saying it matters. Goff losing Gurley's production and them becoming one-dimensional throwing 700 + times has an effect. Then losing Cooks.

I think Goff has definitely shown he's not going to carry a team much like Stafford did but I would also argue that QB's doing that is more fallacy than reality. Good luck finding a long list of guys who lit it up without a balanced offense or top tier playmakers outside of the occasional one year wonders.

[Forsh]

Everybody talks about Stafford being so great on deep passes ... to be honest, I NEVER saw it. I expected him to be incredible throwing deep ... but he overthrew way way too often. He just didn't have great touch or placement on bomb passes. Didn't have anything special with touch passes or short stuff either

Now as for intermediate passes, he was lights out. Anything he could throw 15-30 yards, across the field, to the sidelines, yeah he was pretty incredible. Stafford could hit SPOTS with the best of them ... but I don't think he was that great at hitting receivers in stride

[TheLondonLion]

Pretty sure he has the second best deep ball rating in NFL since 2019.

[Futureshock]

It'll be amusing watching Stafford put up Aaron Rodgers numbers against the Lions defense, while the Hater's Club fills up the gameday threads with, "WHY DIDN'T HE DO THIS FOR US????"

Tagline!!!!

[Futureshock]

Well sometimes he did haha. Stafford looked like future Mahomes in 2011. 41 TD passes his first full season ... hasn't been close since. Maybe 2021

He's always looked good going against them in practice. Unless they get some real pass rushing threats in here it won't be pretty for the home team.

[JGSpartan]

I think it's easy to overlook that everyone misses on deep balls often. Look at it like 3 pointers. Even the best miss a lot.

[Forsh]

Pretty sure he has the second best deep ball rating in NFL since 2019.

Well maybe he's improved and I'm just a fan who always wanted more

[Forsh]

I think it's easy to overlook that everyone misses on deep balls often. Look at it like 3 pointers. Even the best miss a lot.

That is true. We see other teams' highlights, but all of Stafford's highs and lows

[chemiclord]

That is true. We see other teams' highlights, but all of Stafford's highs and lows

I do believe that at least some of the disdain for Stafford is because fans would watch QBs go 24/25 with 300 yards and 3 TDs against the Lions defense, and think that was the baseline. They see wide open receivers with no one within five yards and assume that happens regularly. Sure, fans knew the Lions D is bad... but lack the frame of reference to understand how utterly putrid it was compared to NFL level talent. Stafford simply must not be able to see wide open receivers. He must not be able to read defenses.

Meanwhile, Stafford had to try to match that going up against real defenses. Anyone who complains he was an average QB have no earthly idea what an average QB actually is and how an average QB would look trying to QB the Lions roster. Look at the stat line Tom Brady put up that won the NFC Conference Championship. Had Stafford put up those numbers in a Lions game, they would have lost by 20.

Most Lions fans have no fucking clue just how bad the Lions talent level actually was (and is).

[Sanders Fan]

He’s a hall of fame quarterback. I don’t know how much better you can be, generally speaking, unless you win a super bowl. If he wins one, he might end up being top ten.

[TheLondonLion]

I can think of some great deep throws from Stafford last year.

How about that heave to Kenny Golladay in Atlanta? Some of those deep connections to Marvin Jones? The one to Cepheus?

I think some of you take those kind of throws for granted. They’re rare in the NFL and there’s a handful of guys who can make them.

[Forsh]

I can think of some great deep throws from Stafford last year.

How about that heave to Kenny Golladay in Atlanta? Some of those deep connections to Marvin Jones? The one to Cepheus?

I think some of you take those kind of throws for granted. They’re rare in the NFL and there’s a handful of guys who can make them.

I can show you a 5-10 minute clip of Jared Goff making them if that helps ... just dropping them in the bucket. Fact is, it's probably just a matter of the Lions being so terrible over the years that those throws were their only hope ... so the misses were memorable. It's true that Stafford got more accurate with them over time tho

[TheLondonLion]

I’ve seen Goff make some excellent throws. The MNF shootout against KC featured some absolute dimes. Stafford has a much better arm though and the fact that his stats have him as the second best deep ball thrower in the league suggest that it wasn’t just that it stuck out in Detroit.

[Forsh]

Yeah Stafford has a better arm and is a better QB than Goff. Anyways, said and done that I prob just always wanted more and that Stafford has improved in that area over the years