On Sunday, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford found himself facing the wrath of both the Arizona Cardinals defense and his own team's fans during what was a disastrous overall performance from the struggling quarterback.
In less than three full quarters of play, Stafford was benched after throwing three interceptions and leading his team to just seven points. Overall, the former first-round pick completed 20-of-32 passes for 188 yards with one touchdown and those three picks.
Despite the spin that Detroit wants to put on this, Stafford was benched due to performance. It wasn't all about a bad game. It was about what's been a bad season.
After the game, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell attempted to quiet any potential talk of a quarterback controversy:
“Really, it’s like a pitcher not having a very good day,” the head coach said. “The pitcher comes out and the pitcher obviously, he’s still the starter. He’s still our starter, so there’ll be no issues there. So there is no quarterback controversy or anything of that nature. But I know one thing, we got to get better. This was poor. Just not the kind of outing that we like to see around here.”
Caldwell even went as far to indicate to Stafford at the half that if he threw another pick, he would be benched. That happened nearly immediately after the two teams entered the third quarter with Arizona up 28-7.
Any which way you spin it, Stafford will likely remain the starter unless he continues to implode or is injured. Dan Orlovsky simply isn't going to take snaps away from the team's former No. 1 overall pick. And in reality, the 0-5 Lions are stuck trying to figure out what to do here with Stafford under center.
Including Sunday's three-interception performance, Stafford has thrown six touchdowns in five games. During that very same span, he's turned the ball over a whopping nine times. It's hard for any team to win with a quarterback playing at that substandard level.
From a fantasy perspective, Stafford has been downright atrocious. He's averaging less than 13 fantasy points per game, a No. 25 ranking among quarterbacks. With a preseason ADP that had him as a bottom-end QB1 option, it's safe to say stafford has been an downright disaster.
The issue moving forward is that there doesn't seem to be any signs of progress from the Lions. He's throwing behind a shoddy running game that boasts two rookie running backs. His highest fantasy ranking came in Week 2 when he finished with the 15th-most points among quarterbacks. In fact, Stafford has totaled less than 28 points over the past three games.
Consistently bad. That's probably the best term to use in order to describe Stafford from a fantasy standpoint this season. And in reality, it's time to bench him for good, even if the Lions plan to stick with him.