Fairly honest I think, it ain’t like Stafford is a top tier QB and even though he’s being paid like one, that ain’t his fault. And BTW, there are some others being paid that kind of money who are no better than he is. For better or worse, he is our franchise QB for at least the next 2 seasons, and I for one am not looking forward to the struggle it will be to find the next one. How many guys did we go through before Stafford arrived, and how many will we go through after he’s gone? Maybe the wisest course of action is to wait and see how it goes on offense in 2019 and whether it’s time to draft a QB next year.
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It was an Orlovsky tweet that someone wrote an article around. No issue with what Orlovsky tweeted or Max’s work on the article, I just don’t think I’d phrase it the way you did in the title. I remember reading the tweet a couple weeks ago from Dan-O and I got a little excited that there was an actual article where HE was expounding on it. Sadly, it’s just the tweet wrapped in someone else’s summary.
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Sports “journalism” today in a nutshell
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It could be worse. (It has been worse…)
It could be an article without an actual quote from the individual they’re quoting. “sources say Martha said blah blah blah” will pass for sports “journalism”, too. 
The old “sources close to the situation” or “sources who are familiar with the situation.” Which could literally be the janitor.
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Stafford could opt to take less. Some QBs have taken pay cuts to help their team win. Notably Peyton Manning did it in his super bowl year with Broncos. Took a pay cut, converted it to “if we win superbowl”. They did eventually win the super bowl and he didn’t play all that well in the playoff. Was that extra inch they got in supporting cast the difference? Some think so… Brady consistently takes less than market. But aren’t his endorsement deals worth a lot more than the pay cut? Not necessarily irrational behavior.
The Lions, by committing to Stafford and paying him as much as they do, have prevented themselves from a different QB other than late round picks. Can’t use a pick or money on a better contender because the QB position is already blowing up the cap.
I look at the offense in general, rather than just at QB. Our offense hasn’t really been all that good with him here except in 2011. I looked at 2007. The offense in 2007 scored 346 points. We scored 321 points in 2014. Stafford wasn’t here in 2007… And I really can’t see what advantage the offense had in terms of supporting cast in 2007 that the 2014 didn’t have (Mike Martz?). Defense was amazing in 2014 but sucked in 2007. I’m curious as to how the 2007 offense can outscore 2014… Jon Kitna isn’t top tier, either, but a ton more affordable. If 2014 could have just matched 2007 in points, we win the division and a home playoff game (IMO) and even moreso if we’d also drafted Donald instead of Ebron…
No more excuses for Stafford. Lions can move on in 2020 without too much pain. Could even end up win/win if we trade and get picks. So I hope he looks really good this year. Gives us more options.
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His replacement is on the roster. Connor Cook is the next Aaron Rogers.
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Not when we could sign Mike McMahon for the league minimum. #WhiteVick
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Or Iggy.
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Rag on McMahon all you want, he still beat the Vikings to save us from 0-16 in 2001. I distinctly remember Johnnie Morton throwing his helmet huge in the air.
Plus way back then I had done some statistical analysis. If you take out passes to backs in the backfield, McMahon was actually more accurate throwing downfield than Joanie. I know it isn’t saying much, but I would have rolled with McMahon 100 times out of 100 before Joey Harrington. I watched him at Oregon. I still can’t believe we picked that loser. He was nothing but smoke and mirrors. Anyone who watched Oregon that year (2001) knew that he was carried by his backs. That was a total run first team. How often do you get 2 1000yd backs on a college team in the same year?
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I know I’ve made it into a Den meme, but I actually did legitimately love Mike McMahon as a prospect.
If only he had an ounce of accuracy … sigh
Oh man, that reminds me … I was totally convinced that if we would’ve taken Onterrio Smith, Harrington would’ve been viable.
Onterrio was a real whiz kid. But you need both Smith and Morris. We got Morris later, but…
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