Matthew Stafford

                                PASSING                            RUSHING                 FANTASY

                          Comp/Att   Yards   TD   INT    Rush   Yards   TD     Tot Pts   Pts/Gm

(+) In his first healthy season as a pro, Matthew led the league in passing attempts with 663, the third-most ever in a single-season

(+) Oh, and he threw for 5,038 yards and 41 TDs to boot

(+) In terms of overall tools, Stafford is as talented as it gets

(+) With the best spiral in the game, beautiful touch comes effortless to Stafford

(+) When healthy, Stafford has proven he can hang with the upper tier of fantasy QBs - ranked 5th in total points last year

(+) Titus Young is about to become a household name

(+) Stafford has very solid Red Zone targets in superhuman Megatronic Calvin Johnson and TEs Brandon Pettigrew & Tony Scheffler

(+) Megatron, Titus Young, Jahvid Best & Nate Burleson, along with the newly-drafted Ryan Broyles, gives Stafford some serious playmakers to work with

(+) Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan trends toward throwing the ball (Detroit was 1st in pass attempts last year with 633, 3rd overall in pass attempts in 2010 and 6th overall in 2009)

(–) Even though he played all 16 games last year, he's been an injury-prone player

(–) Matty still has a tendency to play gunslinger, which can lead to poor throws and/or bad decisions

(–) Playing in the NFC North, the Lions will once again have one of the tougher schedules this season

(–) His backfield is consistently either high or injured, allowing defenses to concentrate on stopping the pass

“At least it’s over with” are the words Stafford must have repeated a thousand times back home in Texas after the season ended.  On the other hand, 2009 was by no means a total loss, as Stafford became just the fifth rookie (and youngest) in history to pass for over 400 yards in a game and the FIRST rookie EVER to throw for 5 TDs in a game.  Granted the game was against the lowly Cleveland Browns, who gave up 400+ yards through the air twice on the season, but it was still a performance for the record books and won’t soon be forgotten.  Stafford dealt with the normal growing pains rookie QBs go through, which was compounded by the fact that his star receiver, Megatron, was injured in one way or another for most of the season.  People tend to forget that it’s not easy being the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, especially since the team that drafted you likely sucks, so we’d have to say that all things considered, Stafford turned out a pretty good year in his rookie campaign.

~  Ranked 26th in the league in QB fantasy points with 123.5 (basic scoring system)

~  Ranked 23rd in the league with 13 passing touchdowns

~  Ranked 29th in the league with a 61.0 QB Rating

~  Ranked 30th in the league with a 53.3% completion percentage

~  Ranked 15th in the league with 226.7 passing yards per game

~  Ranked 24th in the league with 201 completions

~  Ranked 23rd in the league with 377 attempts

~  Ranked 25th in the league with 2,267 passing yards

~  Ranked 28th in the league in yards/attempt (6.01)

~  Tied for 20th in the league for amount of sacks taken (24)

~  Set career bests in all major statistical passing category

To quote a Chicago Bears former head coach, Dave Wannstedt, “All the pieces are in place” for Stafford to jump up the fantasy scale this coming year.  First off, the Lions went out and grabbed a serviceable enough WR2 in Nate Burleson to take the pressure off of All-Universe WR Calvin Johnson; a move which will open up both sidelines for Stafford to use.  Second, the team traded for TE Tony Scheffler (the Lions are still counting on TE Brandon Pettigrew this year as well) and plan on using him the way the Colts use Dallas Clark.  Third, Detroit made a play to keep opposing safeties honest by taking one of the best playmakers in the 2010 NFL Draft , RB Jahvid Best.  Add to these moves that both Megatron and Stafford are coming into the season healthy, and there’s no reason to think that Stafford won’t break into the top-15 fantasy QBs in the league, especially in what looks to be a pass-heavy offense.

~ Another full offseason with his receivers should do wonders for his confidence

~ The Lions defense should still give up a ton of points, which will force the offense to pass the ball more

~ Stafford threw for at least 1 TD in 8 of the 10 games he played, while in the two he didn’t, he rushed for one in each

~ A healthy Calvin Johnson can make any QB a viable fantasy option

Stafford does not have a Twitter account.  The official Team Twitter account comes through here:  Lions Player Tweets

Follow Pyro® on Twitter @pyroman1ac

Almost two years to the day after this picture was taken (Stafford on the right, spoon-buddy on the left), Matthew Stafford was taken with the #1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft:

It's also been 52 years since the Lions last won an NFL championship, and supposedly this is the reason why:

http://curseofbobbylayne.com/wordpress/

The #1 overall pick in the 2009 draft signed his monster rookie contract just seconds after being selected.  It was a six-year deal worth $72 million, with $41.75 million of it being guaranteed.  Another (easy) $6 million is available if Staff plays 35% of the snaps as a rookie (done) and 45% over the course of the deal.  Here's how it all breaks down:

2010 - $395,000

2011 - $1.17 million

2012 - $1.945 million

2013 - $2.72 million

2014 - $3.495 million

2015 - Free Agent

Shaun Hill is the handcuff to Stafford at this point

• Offensive Line


• Offensive Scheme


• Major Off-Season Moves


• 2010 NFL Draft

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