Monday open thread: Do you still have faith in Matthew Stafford?

In recent seasons, Matthew Stafford’s play has been enough to transform the Detroit Lions from bad to mediocre. Regardless of the team’s talent around him, you could always count on Stafford to drag the team to a handful of wins. That was the benefit of having a franchise quarterback.

Stafford in 2020 is looking like an abnormality. The question now is if this will soon become normality.

A three touchdown, one interception stat line might lead you to believe that Stafford had a good game on Sunday against the Saints, but it was far from the case. Between sailing passes and taking bad sacks, Stafford has been as much of a detriment as he has been an asset to this team. After an explosive start to the game, the Lions were up 14-0. The ensuing 35 unanswered points is to be blamed on the defense, sure, but it is the unanswered aspect that reflects poorly on Stafford. Despite playing a defense missing multiple starters, the Lions aerial attack lacked any sort of bite.

Does Darrell Bevell deserve some blame? Perhaps. However, the Lions would end up losing by six points, and it feels like the Lions left plenty of points on the board. The red zone interception—on first down, worst of all—came back to haunt them.

Through four game, the Lions are sitting at 1-3, and we are still lacking the kind of performance we saw from Stafford in the early last year.

Today’s Question of the Day is:

Do you still have faith in Matthew Stafford?

My answer: I do, and I almost have to. Regardless of how you feel about the future of this team, and if that includes a rebuild, it is not time to give up on Stafford. Please stop with your Trevor Lawrence photoshops.

I haven’t seen anything from Stafford’s play to indicate that his struggles are physical, stemming from his back injury last year. It appears purely mental, and Stafford has shown enough in his career to give me faith. This is a bad start to the season, sure, but has Stafford regressed to the point of mediocrity? I refuse to believe that yet.

If the Lions want to salvage their season, it will start—or end—with Stafford. I’m not giving up on Stafford. I have to believe he can turn his performance around.

Your turn.