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You could forgive Matthew Stafford for not knowing quite what to do with himself. After all, for the past 136 games, each and every time the Detroit Lions took the field on Sunday (or Monday, or Thursday, or even the occasional Saturday), he was there, commanding the huddle, trying to lead his team to victory.
So it had to be a bit weird when Stafford returned from the opening coin toss and put on not a helmet, but an earpiece. Standing awkwardly on the sideline, you could sense a discomfort that had nothing to do with the fractured bones in his back that sidelined him for the first time in nearly nine years.
It's like Matthew Stafford doesn't know what to do. Just watched him pace around the sideline tapping random players on the head, then eventually go stand next to David Blough and shrug his shoulders.
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) November 10, 2019
Unfortunately for Stafford, he needs to get used to that uncomfortable feeling for a while. Because, if the Lions are smart, Stafford will not see the field again in 2019.
For the second consecutive season, Stafford has broken small bones in his back. And even if the injury is not quite the same one that he played through last season – and even though NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Stafford could be back on the field as soon as next week – the Lions need to think long and hard before they put him under center again.
There is no question that the goal of coach Matt Patricia has to be to win every game. Not just for his future, but because — the Miami Dolphins tank-a-thon aside — winning is always better than losing.
But there’s a bigger picture to think about. Something more important than beating Dallas next Sunday or Washington the one after that.
Stafford is the unquestioned most important player on the Lions. He’s the most important athlete in Detroit. Period. And he’s going to stay that way for a long time.
Before Stafford’s injury, he was on pace for the best and most efficient season of his career. If the Lions hope to compete for a Super Bowl in the next decade, riding Stafford’s arm is the only way it’s going to happen.
Which is why the Lions can’t sacrifice the future for one or two more wins in a season that is going nowhere. After the Lions’ 20-13 loss to Chicago, they sit at a woeful 3-5-1. To make the playoffs, they would have to win their remaining seven games, and honestly, even that would likely not be enough in a stacked NFC.
The Lions have a duty to the future of the franchise (both in the literal and figurative sense of the word) to look past this Sunday and to 2020 and beyond.
Backs are tricky — just ask Tony Romo, who is leading CBS’s broadcast team instead of the Dallas Cowboys right now because of a series of back injuries. And even if doctors say that it’s just a pain management issue, or that Stafford can’t make things worse by playing, the Lions need to be as cautious as possible.
Had this been Stafford’s first back injury, and if the Lions still had a heartbeat’s chance of making the playoffs, then, sure, maybe you consider throwing him back out there. But this is Stafford’s second back injury this season, and the second straight year he’s literally broken his back trying to carry this team to respectability.
For as disappointing as the 2019 season has been, and as hard as it is to see right now, the Lions are not that far away from being an honest-to-gosh competitor in the NFC. The team will have a decent amount of cap space again, what looks to be another potential top-10 draft pick, and with a few tweaks to the coaching staff (looking at you Paul Pasqualoni), it isn’t hard to see how the bounces could go the Lions’ way in 2020.
But none of that will happen if Stafford isn’t completely healthy and if the team has to hold its breath every time he takes a hard hit because they never let his back completely heal.
That’s why the Lions should shut Stafford down for his own good — and the team’s.
And who knows, maybe after a couple of weeks, Stafford won’t look so awkward on the sideline anymore.