Stafford On Opening Up Offense, Taking More Shots This Season: 'I'm All For It'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK - Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and quarterback Matthew Stafford have all made it clear, repeatedly, that offensive numbers do not overly concern them as long as the team wins. Even so, they expect better in 2015. Stafford said as much Tuesday, the second day of the team's offseason program.
Just as there appears to be plenty of room for improvement by the offense, Stafford believes he has yet to hit his ceiling, too.
"There's so many things to work on as a quarterback," Stafford said. "Always working on being as accurate as you can, making as good of decisions as you possibly can, and I think all that comes with experience within an offense. There's new throws in every offense, and this one was no different, so just mastering our plan, our offense, and then really mastering our other guys on our team, our personnel, how they fit in it. We do that, and it'll be a lot better for us."
The quarterback did not identify any particular areas of struggle with the new offense last season, but he noted that the injuries the Lions experienced in the first half of the year contributed to the group not being as productive as hoped.
"There weren't any [throws] that were consistently missed," Stafford said. "I think it's just each guy runs every route a little bit different, and we had a lot of influx of new players throughout the season in different spots that maybe Week One you weren't expecting to have out there.
"As a quarterback, there's no excuse," Stafford added. "You've got to go out there and make throws, but just having more time in this offense with the guys we have in this locker room will make us better."
In 2014, his first season under Caldwell and Lombardi, Stafford completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 4,257 yards and 22 touchdowns. He threw only 12 interceptions, a career low for a full season.
At the team's town hall meeting with season ticket holders last month, Lombardi suggested the team will be able to open up the offense more in 2015 and take more shots down the field.
"I'm all for it, and I think having another year in an offense is going to help that," Stafford said. "We make the shorter plays more efficient, we make sure we're hitting those, and that gives the offensive coordinator and a quarterback and a team and an offense more confidence to go out there and take the big shot knowing that, hey, if it's second and 10, we can get five of it back and have a manageable third down, so it's on us to be more efficient on first and second down, that kind of thing, and then we can take our shots when we're really rolling."
Stafford was sacked 45 times last season, by far the highest total of his career. The offensive line will look much different in the upcoming season than it did in 2014, now without longtime center Dominic Raiola and likely without veteran guard Rob Sims, who is a free agent. Travis Swanson will take over at center, and Detroit is expected to use a high draft pick on an offensive lineman, probably a guard, next week. Stafford said he is not concerned with the turnover.
"Obviously there's going to be new faces," Stafford said. "We've lost some guys that have played a long time here, obviously Dom. It's April. We're not playing a game tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it. I trust the guys upstairs. I'm sure it's a talking point and a position of emphasis really just for depth purposes at this point. There's no question there are not that many guys that are playing guard on our team or listed as guard, so I'm sure they'll look into that and make the decisions that they deem necessary."
While taking snaps from Swanson rather than Raiola will be an adjustment, Stafford has confidence in the young player.
"Played the one game with him last year in Green Bay, and I thought he played great," Stafford said. "I don't think we had any snap issues in that game or anything like that. He's a really smart kid. He played four years at Arkansas. He understands what he's doing, how to play the position, and he studies. He wants to be good, and that's what you want. I think the guys really like him, rally around him, and I'm looking forward to him playing. He's going to be young energy, tough guy, really nothing not to like."
The quarterback said he also looks forward to seeing the progress of second-year tight end Eric Ebron, whom the Lions took 10th overall in 2014. Ebron underwhelmed fans as a rookie, catching 25 passes for 248 yards and one touchdown, but Stafford suggested the game will come more easily to Ebron this season.
"This game is different than the college game, and you have to have experience," Stafford said. "Our offense puts quite a bit on the tight end, we're moving him around quite a bit ... Really all three of [the tight ends] have great skill sets. You want to put them in the best chance to win their matchup or whatever that is, and so that entails a lot of movement before the snap or wherever they're lining up.
"All that stuff becomes easier, then you play faster, you catch the ball, you do all that stuff that you have to do as a tight end, as a receiver, and all that kind of stuff," Stafford continued. "It's just experience, experience not only coming over here and working out with these teammates and getting to know everybody, all that, but experience with the playbook and playing in NFL games."
Detroit's offense ranked 19th in the NFL with 340.8 yards per game, and the team's running game ranked 28th with 88.9 rushing yards per game. Stafford agreed an upgrade in that area could help the offense significantly.
"Any time you get the running game going and you can be efficient in the running game and really just put that thought in the defense's mind that if we hand the ball off we're going to get four yards, or whatever it is, that's tough for a defense to swallow," Stafford said. "Then they start committing more guys to the box and playing tighter defense, and you do that, you have chances to make plays over the top. There's no question about that."