Notes: Tate still considers Stafford the best QB he’s played with

It’s always nice to remember some of the fun times we had watching the YAC king in Honolulu Blue, but this time he’ll be on the other sideline in a different shade of blue. Kyle Meinke at mlive.com wrote about Golden Tate’s return to Ford Field in an opposing uniform. Interesting note from Meinke in a tweet that adds a bit to what is in his article regarding the circumstances of the trade last season:

So it does seem like the team really wanted to bring Tate back on a new contract and made a bona fide effort. Over at The Lions Wire, Jeff Risdon compared and contrasted the organization’s public handling of Tate’s trade to the Giants with the recent trade of Quandre Diggs to the Seahawks. Our own fearless leader Jeremy Reisman noticed the difference as well, as both and he and Risdon noticed the deep warmth and emotion in Tate’s sendoff.

The Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett had an extended conversation with Tate about the time he spent in Detroit catching passes from Matthew Stafford. That period covered a big chunk of the years it took for Matthew Stafford to become the fastest quarterback to 40,000 career passing yards. Mike Freeman from Bleacher Report thinks that achievement is remarkable given the perennially weak teams the organization has put around him. In comments to Birkett, it seems like Golden Tate would agree:

And now, on to the rest of today’s Notes:

• Speaking of Matthew Stafford, NFL.com’s QB Index for Week 8 just came out, and he is ranked pretty high. Not as high as that guy up in Wisconsin, but considerably higher than that other guy in Illinois. For funsies, check out where Kansas City backup Matt Moore (who is standing in for an injured Patrick Mahomes) ranks in comparison.

• We will always stan for Dan O analysis. Here’s some X’s and O’s with Mike O’Hara and Mr. Orlovsky:

• While most fans are thinking about Saquon Barkley, whose return last week from injury was the subject of an article by Benjamin Raven of mlive.com, Justin Rogers from the Detroit News reminds everyone to remember the Lions are also facing another dynamic pass-catching tight end in Evan Engram.

• In case you missed our own Mike Payton’s chat with Giants beat writer Matt Lombardo from the Star-Ledger in New Jersey, check it out here:

• Michael Rothstein at ESPN dug into “Why (the) Lions’ defense under guru Matt Patricia has been woeful in 2019.” Spoiler: our own Kyle Yost already knew what was up.

• This is some really cool vintage footage from the official Lions twitter account: