Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford hopes to play with his team for years to come.
However, will the team still want him come this season’s end?
“Listen, that’s not up to me. It’s not,” Stafford said on FOX2 (h/t ESPN.com). “I love playing here. I’ve enjoyed it. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully I’m here for a long time.”
Stafford has been under much scrutiny this season while the team has registered a miserable 1-7 record at the mid-season mark. With key personnel already fired in Detroit, Stafford’s job, due to one poor performance after another, could very much be in jeopardy after the 2015 season is over.
The low-point this season came in Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals when things got so bad for the quarterback (he threw three interceptions), that he was benched in favor of Dan Orlovsky. Even in spite of that, Stafford had the support of Joe Lombardi, Martin Mayhew Tom Lewand — all of whom have been shown the door.
Stafford so far this season has completed a career-high 64.5 percent of his passes for 2,083 yards. It’s his 11 interceptions that is largely contributing towards the team losing. He has also endured 22 sacks this season, which don’t help as far as keeping the offensive momentum rolling.
Stafford is in the last year in which he still has guaranteed money left on his contract. After this year, there are two more years of non-guaranteed money left before his contract expires after the end of the 2017 season.
Even as all the negativity swirls in Detroit, he has remained positive and wants to focus on helping his team.
“I don’t think it helps, you know, for me to sit there and think about it. I’m doing a disservice to the other guys in the locker room preparing to win games on Sundays to sit there and worry about what the future holds. I’m trying to play as good of football as I possibly can and help the Lions win.”
Stafford and the Lions return from their bye to face a challenging opponent in the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.