Detroit Lions: Matthew Stafford quietly having awesome year

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is quietly having an awesome season, and was at his best on Monday Night against the New Orleans Saints…

Just a couple of months ago, I had written about how Matthew Stafford (and Calvin Johnson, for that matter) could be on the outside looking in of a rebuild of the Detroit Lions franchise as they gutted their front office and were among the worst teams in the NFL.

Suddenly, the Lions strung together a few wins, including a dominant performance on Thanksgiving against the Philadelphia Eagles, and it appeared as though — crazy as it sounded — they might have even had a shot at a playoff appearance. Since getting obliterated by the Kansas City Chiefs, the Lions have won four of their last six games, and a major reason why is Matthew Stafford, the quarterback that was looking like a possible piece of trade bait this offseason.

Now, the Lions will have absolutely no decision to make — Stafford is their franchise QB…again.

Stafford has been underwhelming at best since his 2011 campaign when the Lions took the league by storm and looked like a legitimate threat in the NFC playoff race. Their offense sputtered out against the Atlanta Falcons, but it looked like the foundation was laid for this team to be a pretty darn good one as long as Stafford continued to progress.

He didn’t…until now.

Stafford is completing a career-high 66.1 percent of his passes including a whopping 88 percent against the Saints on Monday night.

He looks far more comfortable in his own skin. He is spreading the ball around really well to the plethora of targets he has at his disposal, and a blossoming running game with a wide range of threat types at the position have him armed for some of the best success of his career going forward.

The question still remains as to whether Stafford can fully regain the 2011 form that saw him throw 41 touchdown passes. I don’t know if he will be that guy again. He’s also been inconsistent at times in 2015, but on the season, he’s thrown for a line of 3,663-27-13 (yards-TD-INT) and has run for a 28th touchdown.

He’s on pace to throw the least number of passes in a single season since he only played three games back in 2010.

This should be only the beginning for Stafford, who is still just 27 years of age. He isn’t blowing anyone away this season with his numbers, but they are pretty darn good and he’s been playing great football over the last two months. I think there’s hope for Stafford yet as a top flight NFL quarterback.