Prior to breaking his back, Matthew Stafford was having one heck of a season for the Detroit Lions. During the eight games he played in, Stafford completed 64.3% of his passes for 2,499 yards and 19 touchdowns and though the Lions had a losing record, he was having an MVP-caliber season.
What makes what Stafford did in 2019 so impressive is that he was not only in a new system under offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, but he had to learn a lot of that offense away from his teammates as his wife Kelly was having and recovering from brain surgery.
Now, in Year 2 under Bevell, Stafford wants the Lions offense to be “great.”
“Obviously, right as we were starting to do all the OTAs and everything, where we’re going to install offense and all of that, Kelly is going through brain surgery and I’m trying to navigate that and learn the offense as best I could,” Stafford said.
“I put a lot of time and effort into that, but at the same time, it’s not the same as being there in the meetings and all that. I feel like I had a really good grasp on this offense in the first year and I’m hoping to build on that.”
“We want to be a great offense and the first step to it is making sure everyone is on the same page pulling in the same direction,” Stafford said. “I think we’ve got that. Hopefully we can continue to grow and get better in year two.”
With Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones Jr., T.J. Hockenson, D’Andre Swift, and Kerryon Johnson as weapons, there is no reason why the Lions cannot have one of the top offenses in the NFL in 2020.
