Remember when everyone was going crazy about how awful Stafford looked in the pre-season? Yeah, he was pretty bad, but the pre-season does not tell all. A lot of people were saying that team performances in the pre-season don't necessarily translate into the regular season, but individual performances do. Well fortunately, after two weeks, the haters have been wrong (for now), and he has shown a lot of what we saw in 2011 these past 2 games. I think we'll see much of the same against the Redskins.

Stafford's numbers have been very impressive through 2 weeks. And I'm seeing a lot of positives that we weren't able to see last year. According to PFF, Stafford is number ONE in accuracy percentage, yes you heard that right. The way they define accuracy percentage is "what a QB's completion percentage would look like if you factor in dropped passes and take away spikes and throw aways". So Matthew Stafford has an accuracy percentage of 82.4% if you take away those things. Matt Ryan is 2nd with 80%. Our WR's have dropped 9 passes on 79 attempts this year, tied for the highest drop % in the NFL with Alex Smith and the Chiefs.

Year Attempts Comps. Drops Accuracy % 2013 (2 games) 79 52 9 82.4 2012 727 435 49 70.5 2011 663 421 46 74.7 2009 377 201 28 65.4

While it's way too early to tell, it's looking like Stafford may have another year like 2011. The accuracy % difference between 2012 and 2011 may seem minuscule, Stafford was actually in the top 5 in accuracy percentage in 2011, and was 20th of 27 in 2012. Drop percentage seems to be an ongoing thing with Matthew Stafford and the Lions. Stafford is tied for #1 in drop % so far in 2013, and was 13th in 2012, 7th in 2011, and 3rd in 2009.

The thing that jumped out the most at me is how quick Stafford is getting the ball out of his hand. Stafford has been able to get the ball out of his hand relatively fast throughout his career, and has been near the top 10 in regards to quickest average time to throw. The problem was his accuracy on those passes. You expect the broken plays to result in more incomplete passes, but even the plays under 2.5 seconds resulted in incompletions. 64-65% is a great number overall, but not so much when you're throwing it in under 2.5 seconds and have your man open on your set play. Stafford ranked 17th in completion % on throws in 2.5 seconds or less with 64.6% last year.

This year, however, Stafford has been able to get the ball out of his hand the QUICKEST among all QB's (2.26 seconds) through 2 weeks. That's pretty outstanding. He also has the highest time in which a play results in a sack. That means our o-line is doing a great job pass protecting so far. In those throws under 2.5 seconds, Stafford has a 73.8% completion percentage, and a QB rating of 122.8. That ranks him 6th among all QB's currently. On throws with an average time of 2.6 seconds or more, Stafford is throwing it at a completion % of 38.9%, and a QB rating of 31.7. Yikes. Get that ball out quick, Matt.

Some Other Notable Stats