ALLEN PARK -- Matthew Stafford is a good leader, both in the locker room and on the field. But he's not a rah-rah kind of guy, especially in public.

That's not good enough for Boomer Esiason.

And that's ridiculous to Matt Patricia.

"I'll say on this whole ridiculous topic ... I'm very blessed and lucky to have Matthew Stafford as my quarterback, and everybody else in the league would be in the same boat," the Lions coach said before practice on Friday. "He's a phenomenal quarterback, he's a great leader. He's certainly the heartbeat of our team and he's a great guy to be around.

"We're grinding through this thing every single day trying to get ready for an opponent. It's great to be able to have a quarterback that, as a head coach, that I can go to at any point in time and say, 'Hey, what do you think about this or what does this look to you?' (He) loves the game, loves to talk football. (He's) always trying to get better--competitive. I don't know what else you can ask for."

According to Esiason, you can ask for a guy who gets fiery on the sideline.

"I want Matt Patricia to hold him accountable," Esiason told 97.1 this week. "'It's not going to be all about you in the fourth quarter, son. I need you to be careful. I need you to be energetic.' One of the reasons why I think Tom Brady screams a lot on the sideline is because I think he tries to whip himself up into a frenzy, and I don't see that from Matthew. I see a lot of Eli Manning in Matthew, like, 'Oh, it's OK.' No, it's not OK. It's your team and you have to get your guys to believe in you and that you're going to win."

The complaint is a familiar one about Stafford, although it's always lobbed either from the stands or the media. He's shown glimpses of fire on the field, like when he called out Golden Tate for running the wrong route during a game in Chicago in 2015. Stafford threw a pick on the play because of it, and he was yelling and gesturing at Tate even before the play was completed.

But that's more so the exception that proves the rule than anything else.

Stafford is a terrific leader, according to teammates and coaches. Guys love playing with him, and look to him for guidance. He often calls up prospective free agents and makes a pitch for Detroit. During the draft, he often gets the phone number of Detroit's draft picks and sends out texts to the new guys welcoming them to town and saying he's open for questions.

He's a leader, although it's more understated than, say, a Tom Brady, and that has been a point of criticism for some over the years. Which Patricia thinks is dumb.

"I think the good for me is I don't listen to anything really outside of our building because it doesn't matter," Patricia said. "It doesn't really affect us because people don't really know what goes on inside this building, which is how I like it, and I enjoy that part of it because it is private to us."