That’s very nice. Good player. But he’s chasing ARSB for most in first two years. So we can revisit this in February of 2025. Much bigger sample size.
Love this guy! He’s pretty much a more beefy Keenan Allen. Along with getting open consistently he can run over DB’s.
Jones had his most productive years with the Lions. But most WRs have their most productive years between 25-28. Burleson actually had his best years with Minny and Seattle before the Lions. Golliday got his pay day and vanished
QBs don’t make WRs great. Great WRs make themselves great. You don’t see the Gofflings falling all over themselves giving Goff credit for Amon Ra having one of the best first three years as a WR in league history and Laportas record breaking rookie season so far
Puka is good because he’s good. Laporta is good because Laporta is good. CJ would have been a HOF reciever on any team that drafted him
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I tend to agree here. Marvin Jones was a very good WR in Cincinnati before coming to the Lions. Golden Tate was a 2d Rd pick who had played well for the Seahawks.
The only one whose success I view as being Stafford-specific is Golladay. That’s a function of Stafford’s willingness and ability to throw the long ball. He definitely made Golladay better.
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It’s a cool story
Tate also had better statistical metrics with yards/route and receiving success rate with the Hags. He just got more yards with the Lions because we threw all the time and ignored building a run game
Agree. The Chiefs are constantly drafting recievers many in the 2nd round, hell Toney is a 1st rounder they aquired and yet with the best QB/coach combo in the league they hardly produce.
Now it don’t hurt having a good QB get them the ball which would help the numbers. That said, the QB doesn’t catch the ball nor get the reciever open all on his own. Guys like Puka or St.Brown would be studs anywhere because that’s who they are.
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What Puka is accomplishing is something that Matthew has never done with any othet rookie WR. I counted 8 drafted with the Lions, probably add a couple more with the Rams…and nothing like Puka has ever happened.
Good, bad, or otherwise, Matthew’s game has changed the last few years to just feeding the heck out of whoever he likes or is the best. He’s like a point guard feeding the ball to whoever is hot. He does it to Kupp when he’s in the game and now he’s doing it with Puka.
We’ll see what kind of success they have with doing this but it’s kind of fun to watch for now…I wonder how many open receivers Matt is missing lasering-in on Puka? Are they going to compare Matt missing wide-open WR’s to himself?
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In Jim Bob Cooter’s offense, Tate was kind of a substitute for the run game.
Beyond that, Tate’s YAC was among the highest in the league because of his elusiveness, not Stafford’s throws.
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When Kupp gets healthy if Puka stays hot he can slip into that Woods role
What I found interesting yesterday as opposed to last week Monday was the Rams found success yesterday by stating committed to a run game. They ran the ball well last Monday too - but just didn’t do it nearly enough. A balanced offense is key. Who would have guessed?
I agree w/you on their probably throwing a ton. McVay loves to throw, Stafford loves to throw, and looks like they have the horses to do it at WR.
AND only 6 receivers avg’d 10+ targets/game in 2022. Pretty unlikely that whoever’s #2 in LA - probably Puka - will get that many targets.
What does seem likely is that, unless the Rams can miraculously fix their OL and passpro, Stafford is gonna take a beating w/all those drop backs.
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It’s going to be fun watching the rams when kupp gets back. Imagine if they were our wild card opponent and had to come to ford field?
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some great story lines there
Lions defeat former QB, who won a Super Bowl his first year with a new team, to earn their first playoff win in over 30 years?
And if they win it on a pick 6 of Stafford, Lions fans will surely drop dead.
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Well-spotted. There’s more to his success than Stafford making him look good, it’s definitely symbiotic. Reminds me of early Amendola with Bradford.
Take Penei Sewell, soak him overnight, then tumbledry for a month on high, & out pops Puka Nacua.
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I do think Stafford made each of those players better than they’d have been at that point in their careers than other QBs each of those players played with.
Goff is doing great and Should get extended for 40-44mil a year. But he’s got a much deeper team, more talented, better coaching, weaker division than we had a decade ago. And as I said before, our WRs are among the best in the league right now at getting WIDE open. Whether it’s the WR, scheme or Goff throwing them open, or a combo of all 3, it sure is a welcome sight.
Crappy part is we’ll lose a lot of our depth because they’ll be ready for big pay days themselves… have to keep drafting like we have.
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By Brian Branch… 
That’s kinda what they days he did feeding it to Calvin no matter the coverage
I just don’t think any QB makes any WR ‘better’. If anything it’s the other way around by great recievers making difficulty or contested catches
I think offenses that abandon run games to throw constantly will make recievers more prolific. But not ‘better’
One can’t make an argument for years that a QB didn’t succeed because ‘he didn’t have weapons or anyone to throw to’ then when a great WR comes along claim the QB made them great
It doesn’t track
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