Matthew Stafford and Detroit’s offense will greatly miss Calvin Johnson. Or will they? Johnson has missed six games in recent years, and the Lions haven’t fallen on their faces in those games.
In the 2013-14 seasons, Johnson missed five games and was a spot-duty performer in a sixth (he was hurt, by they stuck him out there for part of the game, using him as a decoy). In those games, the Lions went 3-3, with Stafford putting up pretty typical numbers.
| STAFFORD WITHOUT MEGATRON | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opponent | Com | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int |
| 2013 | at G.B. (L 9-22) | 25 | 40 | 63% | 262 | 1 | 0 |
| 2013 | at Minn. (L 13-14) | 22 | 33 | 67% | 217 | 1 | 0 |
| 2014 | Buff. (L 14-17) | 18 | 31 | 58% | 231 | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | N.O. (W 24-23) | 27 | 40 | 68% | 299 | 2 | 2 |
| 2014 | Atl. (UK) (W 22-21) | 24 | 47 | 51% | 325 | 2 | 1 |
| 2014 | Mia. (W 20-16) | 25 | 40 | 63% | 280 | 2 | 1 |
Totaling up those numbers, that’s 269 passing yards, on average, for Stafford. That’s 12 yards short of what he averaged in his other games in those seasons.
He threw 9 TDs. That’s a little short of his other games (45 TDs in those 26 starts).
And he threw 5 interceptions, which is a slight improvement over 26 interceptions in his 26 other games.
Average completion percentage: 61 percent, which is slightly above what he did in either of those other seasons.
Not that Stafford won’t miss Johnson at all. He’s a big, fast dude that commands double teams and would have hit on some long gainers. But the fall without him won’t necessarily be gigantic, and the Lions also get the benefit of being able to use that cap space on other players.
—Ian Allan