Matthew Stafford's Yards - What Do They Mean?

      There is always a debate about whether Stafford is a great QB or a good QB or just and average QB. One stat that is always mentioned is the yards he puts up. Those who dont like him will point out how he has a ton of attempts to get him those yards. I decided to look at his yardage and see just what it does say about him.
     Stafford's two biggest seasons had passing yards of 5,038 & 4,967 which rank as the 9th and 10th most yards in a single season ever. I know, you get the yards if you get enough attempts right? Completely right, but now consider what you are actually saying. On a Lions team that has not had a good running game since before the turn of the century, when every defense you play knows you are passing, you get one of the top 10 most yards in a season ever? When defensive linemen know you will be passing and have no fear of the run game beating them, they are pinning back their ears and coming for the QB hard. When most of his career he has never had more than two good receivers and often only had one good one healthy. When most QBs in the NFL would fail miserably in the same situations, Stafford shells out 5,000 yards.
      Who are the other QBs with 5,000 yards in a season? Drew Brees (5 times), Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Dan Marino. Strange that as often as average to decent QBs have played on bad teams that needed to pass a lot, no average quarterbacks have reached 5,000 yards before. Oh, and just a tidbit of info to chew on. In 7 of the top 10 seasons in yards ever, the QB was at least 29 years old. The three who were younger? Marino was 22, Stafford was 23 and Stafford was 24.
      In the last six years, Stafford's lowest yard total is 4,257.  In the last 6 seasons, this is how many times the top QBs threw for 4000+ yards.
(6) Stafford
(6) Brees
(6) Ryan
(5) Brady
(5) Rivers
(4) E.Manning
(4) A.Rodgers
(4) Palmer

      Now consider one other thing. What is one of the most common complaints about Caldwell and Cooter as the Lions coaches? Too conservative. Whene you consider that the Lions scheme is supposed to be a conservative scheme, with a ton of short passes and too many runs on first downs. And to think Stafford is still throwing for over 4,000 yards when the defenses know we cannot run? Any way you want to try and spin it, that is truly impressive.
     Overall, Stafford's yards are very impressive. In fact he is one of the very best since his shoulder surgery before the 2011 season. When you can point out how average QBs are throwing for over 4,000 yards every season when they dont have a run game to keep the defense honest, I will listen to arguments that maybe Stafford isn't a great QB, but when he continues to match up to the great QBs, and even do better than some of them,I have to keep placing him as a great QB as well.

How the Detroit Lions Have Improved in the Off Season

     Has Bob Quinn improved the Lions in the off-season? In different forums I have seen different people say how they just don't see how the Detroit Lions have improved between free agency and the draft. Every time I see that opinion posted, I have to ask myself. Are they blind? Since there seems to be so many people who probably wouldn't see the grill of the bus that hit them, I decided I would explain it in detail.

Of course, there is no way of knowing just how much any prospect drafted after the 3rd round will contribute in their rookie season, so I decided I would stick to Free Agency and only the first three rounds of the draft.

One major area of improvement will be the offensive line. Last year the offensive line had its share of troubles.
LT - Decker: A rookie.
LG - Tomlinson: A second year pro who has yet to develop into the position
C - Swanson: A young player whose entire career was stunted by the Lombardi fiasco.
RG - Warford: A decent player when healthy, but his health was always an issue.
RT - Reiff: Another player whose growth was stunted by Lombardi and then was forced to switch sides and play RT for the first time.
Reserve: The rookie, Glasgow, was asked to step in to start in place of the floundering Tomlinson, then was asked to move over and take over Center when Swanson suffered a concussion.

As one can easily see, this unit had its problems. Then we look at this year's unit...

LT - Decker: He played well as a rookie and will now have a year under his belt, and should take a step forward with the experience.
LG - Glasgow: Like Decker, Glasgow will have a year of developing under his wings and could take a step forward.
C - Swanson: There is some worry as to the health of Swanson. When healthy last year, he was a top ten Center. If he goes down with another occurring concussion, Glasgow can slide over and play the position well.
RG - Lang: May not be a better run blocker than Warford, but he is definitely a better pass blocker as he did not allow so much as a QB hit in 2016.
RT - Wagner: I cant honestly say he is definitely better than Reiff, but he will play better because he wont be dealing with a bad lineman next to him and will not be switching sides of the field.

Overall this unit will definitely be a better pass blocking unit than last years version. Due to two rookies developing, this could also be a better run blocking line than last years. This will help them open more holes in the run game and if they give the passing plays more time to develop down field, the deeper passes will draw safeties with them and open the middle of the field even more.

At RB the Lions will start off with a healthy Ameer Abdullah. Will he stay healthy? That is the big question, but the odds are, he will stay healthy longer than he did last year. If he stays healthy for the season, the run game is dramatically improved. If he does go down to injury again, the next best runner is Zenner and I believe the coaches are learning that Zenner is a much better RB than most want to give him credit for.  He may not be real fast, but he isnt all that slow either, he runs with authority, breaking plenty of arm tackles, and was easily the most effective runner for Detroit after AA was injured. And Zenner did his best work against the better teams at the end of the year.

In the third round of the draft, the Lions added an offensive player that could make a difference from the start for the team. WR-Golladay is 6'4" and does a good job of adjusting to the ball when it is not on target. More importantly, he only dropped 5 passes in college, so a pair of sure hands can make a huge difference.

On the other side of the ball, the Lions went with defense in the first two rounds. With their first pick they added Jarrad Davis, LB, and immediately upgraded that position twice, because he will be a better ILB than Whitehead, and this allows Whitehead to move to the outside where he belongs.

 In the second round, the Lions added Teez Tabor, a CB. This pick worried a lot of fans needlessly. He has size at 6' and 199 lbs. He has the intelligence to know when to break on the ball and read opposing plays and got 6 picks due to it. He has speed to... wait, does his profile say he ran a 4.67 forty yard dash? 4.67 for a CB? Suddenly you can see why this pick worried a lot of fans. What those fans do not realize is that the day before the combine, Tabor tweaked his hamstring and it slowed his speed. Then on his pro-day, Tabor tweaked it worse and he ran an even slower time. Suddenly the football world became buzzed with the slow speeds Tabor put up. If you want to see the real Teez Tabor, try watching his hi-light video to see him running stride for stride with fast receivers. Watch him make cuts on the pass that most CBs do not have the ability to pick off.

The Lions added a top end LB to their weakest position. That is a huge improvement. They added a CB who could be nearly as good as Slay, and though he will need time to develop, as most all CBs need one year, he should start coming on near the end of the year and that will improve the secondary down the stretch.

Are the Lions a Superbowl contender from this off season? Likely not. But there are enough upgrades this off-season to make them competitive week in and week out. I would even project them to win a playoff game this year. Maybe just as importantly, the Lions did not get worse in any position other than receiving, and that will depend on how well Billingsly and Golladay play.