As sure as I can possibly be, he will show that he's in the ballpark of Alex Smith next year. A lot of times, he wasn't a part of the larger problem but he was never part of the solution. Look at our drafting, we kept trying to give Stafford the world through the draft. That's the main reason the defensive side looks like hot ass trash.
Nah Stafford is better than Smith. Smith is/was a game manager. Stafford can move the ball down field without effort, and make every throw. The problem is that the Lions are a historically terrible organization. We talk about how the organization tried to give Stafford the world but at the same time...this dude spent a weirdly long portion of his career with bum ass receivers and no decent pass catching TEs. He was going out there with no run game, most years. Questionable o-line play for years. And of course a defense that was often terrible. Last couple years he had the weapons and o-line to win...but the defense was (literally) historically bad and our run game was questionable at best.
Now he's presumably going to go to a team that is truly built to win, with all the pieces MOST quarterbacks need to win. If he goes to Indy he'll have a great o-line, great run game, solid receivers, and a good defense. Same story to varying degrees in San Fran, Washington, Pittsburg, and Denver. I can definitely see a team making a run in the playoffs with him, and it's gonna confirm everything we've said for a decade about the Detroit organization and fan culture.
Stafford isn't a top 5 QB. But he's good enough to win with, and if he had fallen into the hands of even a competent organization in 2009, he'd have multiple playoff wins by now.
Shoutout to whoever came up with that one
