When the Lions faced the Vikings last month, Matthew Stafford was sacked a career-high 10 times. Now Stafford is dealing with a back injury, and the Lions are preparing to face the Vikings again.
That’s less than ideal, but the Lions have shown every indication of throwing their $27 million-a-year quarterback out there against Minnesota, even though they know how well the Vikings match up with them.
“They have just multiple different ways to pressure the quarterback and to just kind of keep the heat on the offensive line from that standpoint,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said, via the Detroit News. “A lot of really great players, a lot of good scheme, everybody kind of working together and I think that’s something that they have been able to develop through the course of a number years, kind of being in the same system and the same scheme with a lot of the same players for a while really has allowed that to grow. And that’s why I just think it’s so dynamic, especially in those real tough situations that you know the ball is going to be thrown on third down, second and long, things like that where they can really just dial it up and go.”
It might be wise for the Lions to consider shutting Stafford down, given that they’re mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and there’s no getting out of his $29.5 million cap hit next year. The Lions are married to Stafford whether he’s healthy or not. They just have to hope he’ll be healthy, and better, in 2019.