Winning the starting quarterback job was the easy part for Matthew Stafford. Now the tough part begins.
Can he take it?
Because he is going to have bad games. Real bad ones. Maybe as soon as the season opener at New Orleans. He is going to get booed. It is entirely possible he will get benched at some point this season. How will he react to adversity?
That’s the part we don’t know about Matthew Stafford. To this stage, we understand he has an incredibly strong arm and decent mobility and a certain gunslinger mentality. He is extraordinarily talented, but what about the intangibles?
I think it is the right decision by the Lions. He played well in three of the four preseason games. I also think he gives the Lions a better chance to win now because defenses must respect his arm. It’s unlikely they will put an extra defensive back in the box to shutdown the run - like they would with most rookie quarterbacks - and dare him to beat them deep. Not with Calvin Johnson on the outside.
It should help Kevin Smith gets some yards. The more likely scenario is defenses will drop defenders back, and try to disguise coverages. Stafford was intercepted a lot in college and during the preseason. Can he recognize those coverages? Will he understand the value of taking care of the ball?
At least this way, he will learn. I’m convinced - especially after talking to Peyton Manning following the Lions preseason game vs. Indianapolis recently - Stafford wasn’t going to learn much on the sidelines.
Daunte Culpepper doesn’t present the same deep threat. You would likely see eight in the box. It would hinder the Lions running game.
But like I’ve said and written before, it would not have been a travasty had Culpepper been named starter. He did perform better than I expected during the preseason.
Yet, that would have just been delaying the inevitable growing pains Stafford must endure. Better to get them out of the way sooner instead of later.