Nothing Good Happens for Lions if Stafford Can't Stay Upright

The roster says that Matthew Stafford is a third-year NFL quarterback. Don’t believe everything that you read. Stafford is the Paper Lion, with apologies to George Plimpton. The kid reared in Texas was drafted first overall in 2009 by the Lions out of the University of Georgia, and he’s still working on a complete season of 16 games. He stands at 13 games played after two seasons—10 in 2009, three last year. The other 19 have been missed because of his knees or his shoulders. If this was baseball, 13-for-32 would be a cool .406 batting average—very Ted Williams-ish. But this is pro football, where 13-for-32 for a quarterback isn’t good, no matter how you slice it. It’s not good as a completion percentage, and it’s downright disdainful as a playing percentage. Stafford is entering his third year as a pro, but we don’t know enough about him to make a clear, confident assessment of his quarterbacking abilities. Everything about Stafford is talked about as if you’re looking at ...