Lions notes: Matthew Stafford has helped Detroit scout college, pros

While Matthew Stafford is coming off of one of his most disappointing seasons, head coach Matt Patricia doesn’t seem too worried about it. During his breakfast session with the media this week, Patricia once again backed his franchise quarterback.

Only this time, Patricia hit us with something we haven’t heard before about Stafford’s value. The Lions head coach noted that Stafford is a great resource for them when looking to scout players.

“You know what’s amazing about Stafford, free agency, draft, any of that stuff, if you want information, ask him because he knows it sometimes better than we do,” Patricia said according to the Detroit News. “He loves the game, which is what’s great as a coach because you’re like, ‘What do you think about this guy?’ And he’ll give you a rundown and you’re like, that was pretty good.”

No word on who Stafford wants the Lions to target with their eighth overall pick.

• If you’re keeping track at home, ESPN’s Michael Rothstein has the contract details of the Lions’ latest signings right here. The long and short of it, here are the cap hits for each players in 2019: Tommylee Lewis ($920k), Marcus Cooper ($735k), Logan Thomas ($735k) and Andrew Donnal ($685k).

• You probably don’t need any more convincing, but LeGarrette Blount’s 2018 season was statistically the worst among all running backs with 100+ rushes:

• Chris Burke of The Athletic ran the mock draft simulators at The Draft Network and Fanspeak over 100 times and made a consensus mock draft for the first 10 picks. Here are the results (subscription required).

• Luke Willson has finally drawn some interest elsewhere. The former Lions tight end is visiting Oakland Friday:

• The Lions don’t have the power alone to get Toto for the Thanksgiving halftime show. So maybe the NFL needs a little more convincing with one of those online petitions that work 100 percent of the time. Here’s one set up by one of our fans on twitter. Here’s another one from reddit!

• The Lions could very well be in the market for a wide receiver in this year’s draft. One player they’ve shown interest in is Arizona State’s N’Keal Harry: