Head coach Matt Patricia and the Detroit Lions have come under scrutiny for how they handled quarterback Matthew Stafford’s injury during the week leading into Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears. There are questions about whether the Lions gave deliberately misleading information during the daily injury reports throughout the week — enough that there are reports the NFL will investigate whether the Lions are guilty of any impropriety.
Stafford practiced throughout the week and was listed on the final injury report Friday as questionable with a back and hip injury. The news came out Sunday morning that Stafford in fact has broken bones in his back and was not medically cleared to play by team doctors.
Jeff Driskel got the start on short notice. Just how short that notice was is in question.
Patricia tackled those questions head-on in his press conference in Allen Park on Monday. When asked about the extent to which the team knew Stafford was injured and when he would not play, Patricia gave a lengthy answer.
Here it is in full. Read it in Patricia’s voice, if it helps:
“Basically the way last week worked was Stafford practiced all week. He took a lot of reps during the course of the week. Now we always practice our backup quarterback. We have for the entire season in a certain amount of reps during the course of the week. I’d say, depending on the previous game, a lot of those reps for the backup quarterback, we usually go earlier in the week. Maybe later in the week, depending on where Matthew feels in the beginning part of the week — or if it’s a short week or something along those lines.
“He felt really good through the course of the week. So that was all positive from that standpoint. We had some additional scanning Friday evening that took place, and that scanning really caused us to have some further internal discussion over the weekend. That was really what sparked some of those conversations. The discussions, the details of those, I’m going to leave private. Those are medical conversations.
“But, to be honest with you, Saturday when we came in before we left, just to prepare the team and our preparation to make sure we were doing our due diligence, because of where the rep count was, I told the team, ‘Look, we have to be prepared for all outcomes, and if it’s a situation where our quarterback can’t play, we have to be ready to go.’
“We actually extended our Saturday walk-through with that in mind. So we took a double amount of reps just to get everybody ready to go.
“It’s really no different than some of the other things we do during the course of the week with other positions, whether it’s a specialty player, a punter, a kicker. Obviously the quarterback is in the same situation, because you basically only have one guy that basically does the majority of that stuff.
“With that in mind, I wanted to make sure the team was prepared. But really knowing Matthew Stafford, he wants to play. He’s extremely tough. He’s extremely competitive, and honestly, we spent most of Saturday trying to figure out a way, if there was a way, for him to play safely. I mean, that’s really it.
“(Stafford is) very competitive; he’s honestly one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around. I’ve seen him play through some pain in other games that I don’t know if even some of the tougher guys would’ve played through.
“So in those situations where it looks as we’re going through the course of the week and previous weeks where he’s been really sore, beat-up, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this guy is going to make it’ and he shows up on Sunday.
“With that in mind, knowing the toughness, knowing how competitive he is, I just wanted to wait as long as possible, really from that standpoint, because of his situations.
“And I would say the timeline for us was when we got to Chicago late Saturday night, got done with meetings, I think at that point in time that I just knew he wouldn’t start. And out of respect for him, and everything that he’s done for this organization, I just wanted to leave the option open when we got to Sunday if he wanted to dress. I think that’s important. I think that’s important to the player. I’ve been in that situation before where I had to tell a very established, long-term, longtime great player in the NFL that he was inactive. It probably broke my heart more than it broke his to tell him that. So I wanted to leave him that option, and therefore we’d make it official on Sunday morning if he wanted to dress.
“Honestly, if he woke up good Sunday and walked in, there was another conversation Sunday. So we had to meet again and go through that on Sunday morning and at that point, we made the decision it wasn’t safe. We couldn’t figure out a way to do it.
“So Jeff was told at that point that he was going to go. It wasn’t a surprise to him from that aspect of it because we prepared appropriately. And we just went out and played.”
In Driskel’s postgame press conference, he gave his own details of when he found out he would start. From the official transcripts provided by the Lions PR team:
Q. When did you find out that you would be starting?
Driskel: I mean, as a backup quarterback, there’s always opportunity or there’s always a chance you’re going to get in the game. That’s just been my mindset the whole time is, hey, you could be called on at any time, and be ready to go. And that’s just been my mindset since I got here, is when I am called upon to be ready to go.
Q. When did they tell you that you were going to play? That’s the question. Did you know Friday? Saturday? Sunday?
Driskel: Yeah, I mean like I’ve been saying, they have been telling me, since I got here, be ready to go when you’re called upon. I found out this morning when I got to the stadium.
Driskel’s answer is consistent with Patricia’s timeline and version of events.