Detroit Lions: Can Matthew Stafford Succeed in 2016?
By Erik Schlitt
Calvin Johnson has retired and Jim Bob Cooter is implementing a new offensive scheme. Will Matthew Stafford be able to succeed with these changes?
Before we look forward, we must look back
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had arguably his best year as a professional in 2015. Mike Payton of Pride of Detroit wrote up a nice piece comparing Stafford’s 2011 & 2015 seasons.
Stafford completed 398 passes on 592 attempts for an overall completion percentage of 67.2%.
Matthew Stafford finished the season with a 67.2% completion percentage. That, friends, is a team record.
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) January 3, 2016
Matthew Stafford in 2015 became the only QB ever to complete 60%+ of his passes in all 16 games https://t.co/Oo2D1YfX6s #OnePride
— Lions on Reddit (@detlionsreddit) February 19, 2016
Not only was he setting team and league completion records, he was also efficient in the right areas. Bryce Rossler of The Detroit Lions Podcast posted an article on Stafford’s “Red Zone” efficiency. Bryce points out that while Stafford’s overall season completion rate was impressive enough, inside the 20 yard line it got even better.
Stafford’s completion percentage inside the 20 was 65.75%, the best in the league. Inside the 10 yard line Stafford’s completion rate jumps to an astounding 75%. According to Bryce’s numbers, “Stafford was almost a full 20% more accurate than his peers inside the ten”.
So in a year with such a high rate of completions, how did Stafford distribute them?
| NAME | Receptions | % of Rec | Targets | % of Targets | Yards | Ave | TD |
| Golden Tate | 90 | 21.4 | 128 | 20.3 | 813 | 9 | 6 |
| Calvin Johnson | 88 | 21 | 150 | 23.7 | 1214 | 13.8 | 9 |
| Theo Riddick | 80 | 19 | 99 | 15.7 | 697 | 8.7 | 3 |
| Eric Ebron | 47 | 11.2 | 69 | 10.9 | 537 | 11.4 | 5 |
| Lance Moore | 29 | 6.9 | 43 | 6.8 | 337 | 11.6 | 4 |
| Ameer Abdullah | 25 | 6 | 39 | 6.2 | 183 | 7.3 | 1 |
| Joique Bell | 22 | 5.2 | 27 | 4.3 | 286 | 13 | 0 |
| TJ Jones | 10 | 2.4 | 18 | 2.8 | 132 | 13.2 | 1 |
| Tim Wright | 9 | 2.1 | 16 | 2.5 | 77 | 8.6 | 2 |
| Brandon Pettigrew | 7 | 1.7 | 15 | 2.4 | 67 | 9.6 | 1 |
| Michael Burton | 6 | 1.4 | 6 | 0.9 | 39 | 6.5 | 1 |
| Corey Fuller | 4 | 1 | 9 | 1.4 | 76 | 19 | 0 |
| Zach Zenner | 2 | 0.5 | 3 | 0.5 | 11 | 5.5 | 0 |
The most noticeable stat to people outside of Detroit is that Calvin Johnson was only targeted 23.7% of the time. This has become an all to common narrative for the national writers to say that all Stafford does it throw it up to Calvin.
Don’t get me wrong, Calvin Johnson is a Hall of Fame wide receiver and he impacted the game beyond targets and receptions, but it’s disrespectful to the rest of the Lions skill players to say they can’t function without him.
Next: Joe Lombardi vs. Jim Bob Cooter