Stafford: Made of Glass, Ironman...or Both?

So, Stafford separated his shoulder his rookie season, then need shoulder surgery (the other shoulder I think) his next year and a lot of fans, me included, said he was made of glass and a risk for the future of this team. Teammate Zack Follet called him a “China Doll”

Then he made his ironman run having started 135 straight starts, which is amazing. Now he may likely be out for the season. But can he be a China doll AND an ironman? Is there something inherently wrong with his skeletal system?

He has had a separated shoulder, surgery for AC joint repair and a clavicle shaving, and minor knee surgery to clean out some irritants and debris which kept him out of games. But he also has had injuries he played through including a broken finger, broken bones in his back last year and now different broken bones in his back this year.

So I say he HIS a China doll, but he’s also an amazing Ironman who plays through his fragile body problems whenever inhumanly possible.

To each their own but I personally would never consider Stafford a china doll.

Quite the opposite actually!

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WHAT are you on !!?? Stafford is NOT “made of glass/ A China doll” ! Gees, that man has stood in and stayed in playing through 95% of ALL his injuries, He is a warrior who will not quit !

There were times our staff suggested he stay out but Matt told them he is %#@%ing playing !
an nothing WRONG with his skeletal system, he’s just taken a pounding behind our O-lines, with little run game and defense.

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I don’t think any guy in the NFL is a china doll. Some of the hits guys in the NFL take would cripple guys with slight builds. Some hits don’t look very rough but could be career threatening. Look at the Tua hit or the Mahomes hit. Those weren’t real big hits.
Some guys have higher pain tolerances than others.
But Stafford was unlucky early on in his career and then lucky later on in his career with injures.

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I think it says a lot more about our poor protection of him over the span of his career. He has taken quite the beating. This year has been pretty good, but as many speculated, he probably wasn’t healthy coming in.

Minnesota has killed him the last few years

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He can be both, I mean his body fails a lot but his spirit keeps him playing anyway

I think the 50 million dollar question is whether or not this is now a type of back injury that will be something he is prone to, either at the same site of the previous breaks or just something with his body in general. If so, that is a real problem for this franchise.

The only time I’ve seen Stafford getting hurt on an innocent play was the reinjuring of his shoulder vs. the Jets way back when. He’s not in any way brittle. He’s taken a beating over the years.

These are tiny fractures that are not career threatening if allowed to heal, from what I understand. Might as well shut him down. Next year is the big year for his contract. Either we do big things or we’re starting over at QB in all likelihood, and probably at HC and GM. 2020 will be a turning point - big time IMO. The next one after that is when Mrs. Ford passes on, though I’m certainly not wishing for it. She seems like a fine lady. But you’d have to think the kids cash out after that. So things will change in the coming years, the question is how much for the better?

No, His body doesn’t fail a lot. He plays a incredibly physical game. Dudes are nicked up and bruised every single game. You don’t play 130 plus games straight if your body is failing you a lot. D’shawn Hand is currently running towards that type of discussion…

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Almost every single guy that plays in the NFL are tough as hell. It’s a physical game and every single guy out there has some little injury every single game. No one is 100%. I have no idea how running backs make it through a complete season.

I think Stafford is done. He might play a bit here and there but back injuries just don’t get better, especially when you are playing football.
Too bad the Card Dback didn’t pick off Stafford in overtime. Too bad Eckeler had to stick the ball out and fumble on the 1 yard line. Too bad the Eagles had to drop a shit ton of passes against the Lions, and too bad the New York Giants suck so badly. The Lions could be sitting pretty at 0-9, ready to dump Patricia, Quinn, and getting the 1st or 2nd pick in the draft…either Joe Burrows or Justin Herbert

No. But as you age, you heal slower.

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Tell me about it … :sob:

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LOL.

OR
Bevell doesn’t call timeout,
Refs dont’ take packer game
Refs don’t take KC game
Mathew & KJ don’t get hurt (beat Chi)
…also win today
and we’re sitting pretty atop the division @ 8-2

If we’re going to live in fantasyland, you can see where this scenario is at least as, if not actually more likely.

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I have several problems with Stafford. His toughness/durability aren’t among them.

Which is kind of weird, given how his NFL career started. But after that, he’s proven as tough and durable as any QB in the league.

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He’s always been tough. Played half a season with a broken finger on his throwing hand. The injuries you speak of were the same injury, because they brought him back too early (re-aggrivated the same injury). He’s always been mentally tough.

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My only point was, he missed most of his first two seasons to injury. Which certainly meant it was open to debate whether he was an injury-prone player who was never going to make it happen.

The rest is history.

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This is ridiculous nonsense. He took an incredible beating early in his career. He has been tremendously durable. The Lions waited almost a decade to make any serious attempt to build a quality OL in front of him and it is still a work in progress. An OL is what protects a teams most valuable assets - Barry, Calvin and Stafford. The fact that the Lions organization has never had a clue about this is on the organization nothing more. All three guys are classy individuals, but someone should have been beating the table behind the scenes to deal with this issue.

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No, Stafford is definitely not made of glass. However the QB that a lot of fans wanted back then, but decided to stay in college for another year(to avoid being drafted by us) Bradford is most definitely made of glass. I think we kind of dodged a bullet on that one. Won’t get into the Curry debate though.

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This isn’t a disc problem. It’s microfractures. It’s not uncommon and the prognosis is good. If he walks away from football there will be more to it than this particular injury IMO.

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