Radio.com: Stafford was 'mentally and physically drained' after Matt Patricia

Stafford was 'mentally and physically drained' after Matt Patricia
By Will Burchfield
Feb. 1, 2021

J Lang was teammates with Matthew Stafford for two seasons in Detroit. Loved playing in front of him, respected his toughness and talent. And, if he’s being honest, wished Stafford had been more of a spark for his teammates.

“As far as Detroit, he was the leader in that locker room. And not trying to say anything negative, it was pretty much all, lead by example," Lang told the Stoney & Jansen Show Monday. “He wasn’t necessarily the rah-rah guy and getting on guys’ ass when he needed to during the week in practice or in games. Once the games come around I think it was one of his weaknesses, where he just needed a little bit more fire at times. Not from him personally, but for the rest of the team, making the rest of the team better and pulling those guys up.”

Lang, who was in Detroit for the final season of Jim Caldwell’s tenure and the first season of Matt Patricia’s, said Stafford delivered this emotion “at times.” But not enough. And after three seasons under the heavy hand of Patricia, Lang says Stafford was spent. Patricia took a winning team with a QB in his prime and drove it off a cliff. Stafford, 33 this month, didn't have the stomach to start another climb from the bottom.

“His last couple years in Detroit, I think he was just so mentally and physically drained, and I don’t hold that against him because the last regime was really tough,” said Lang.

So Stafford is off to LA, where he’ll try to take his career to places he couldn’t take it in Detroit. Jared Goff arrives in his stead, perhaps the Lions’ quarterback of the future. In the short-term, Stafford will surely be missed — fiery leader or not. In the long-term, it was time for a divorce.

"I think this team is going to miss him, I do, because he was here for so long and he was always that older guy that you went to if you had any problems or issues or anything like that," said Lang. "But when you’re starting fresh the way they’re going to, there’s going to be a lot of new pieces in that locker room, I think it was best for them to move on from him and for him to move on from this team. Because it’s a new era almost, where, ‘Hey, we need the younger guys to step up now. Frank Ragnow, Taylor Decker, you guys are the older guys. We need you to show the young guys how we want to rebuild things.’ I don’t think Matthew Stafford, going into year 13, really wanted to bear the brunt of that responsibility.”

You can question Stafford’s leadership. You can’t question his grit. He’s played through so many injuries in his career, including a broken back in 2018 toward the end of his 136-game ironman streak, that Lang said Stafford will always have the respect of his peers.

“The one thing that his teammates and I think this city loved about him, you knew he was going to leave it all on the field every single time he played,” said Lang. "He played through so many injuries in just the two years that I was with him that he’s a quarterback that guys want to play for. And that’s a contagious characteristic to have, to just be one of those tough, hard-nosed dudes, especially at the quarterback position.”

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