ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Jim Caldwell believes nothing happens accidentally. It’s how the Detroit Lions coach explains many things – including a tool he used to help quarterback Matthew Stafford during their first season together.
Caldwell compiled a chart in Baltimore working with Joe Flacco, listing statistical comparisons for where Flacco needed to be. Yet Flacco never saw it. Caldwell was hired by Detroit and ended up being able to use the chart with Stafford instead in a quick meeting this spring.
“When I first came, one of the things I like to look at is areas which we need to improve upon and how it stacks up with Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, essentially,” Caldwell told ESPN.com last month. “And then looked at the numbers and say, ‘OK, if we want to be where we say we want to be, these are the things that we have to do.’
“That’s basically what we did.”
The chart helped with the message Caldwell, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and quarterbacks coach Jim Bob Cooter have drilled to Stafford since they were hired: Pick up his completions while dropping his interceptions.
Despite a season where Stafford’s yards (4,257) and touchdowns (22) have dropped dramatically, the areas they wanted him to improve did. His 60.3 completion percentage is the second-best of his career, even if it ranks No. 25 in the league. His 12 interceptions are the lowest of his career.
While there have been questions about Stafford’s season during the Lions’ 11-5 campaign, understanding what Stafford’s coaches drilled into him helps explain the numbers.
The Lions coaches did this by charting every interception and every pass from the start of OTAs – every ball thrown with a defender present. Interceptions were called out by Lions coaches and mentioned in team meetings. That was part of how they drilled the message to Stafford. As late as December, Stafford had to be reminded of what the goals were in light of unimpressive numbers against Minnesota, when he threw for 153 yards.
“I said, ‘Dude, you turn the ball over, we lose. That’s the truth,’ “ Lions backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky said last month. “When you hear it and you look at it, it’s like, yeah. We had two possessions in the second half, right, because the four-minute when we handed it off.
“He throws a pick on one of those possessions, we lose the ball game and we’re sitting here in a totally different conversation. It’s a big deal. It’s a hard thing to master.”
He’s tried to “master” it with the help of multiple people – even as he didn’t put the massive numbers from a few years ago under then-coordinator Scott Linehan.
A lot of what Stafford does weekly takes a collaborative effort from Cooter, Lombardi, Caldwell and backup quarterbacks Kellen Moore and Orlovsky.
Cooter assigns Moore and Orlovsky games to watch and break down on their own to help Stafford along with cutups put on an iPad. Late in each week, Cooter has Moore and Orlovsky present games they watched – looking for tendencies or oddities from older games the coaches won’t get to for an edge.
That has been a major assist as they try to get Stafford ready for Sundays. It helps him make smarter choices and avoid big mistakes. It is part of the transition Stafford is making as a quarterback under Linehan to the one he is now – even if some of the stats don’t make it seem like there is progress.
“Any time you move into a new offense there are intricacies that really make an offense great,” Stafford said. “You have to learn those through experience and with as much injury and turnover as we had this year, there were some certain times that we weren’t able to get in as good a groove as we’d like to be in.
“But , we’ve found ways to win games and played big in crunch time. That’s pretty impressive.”
It has been enough for the Lions to make the playoffs this year. This is where the chart comes in again. Now in the postseason, Stafford has the blueprint for what he’ll need for success. Caldwell showed it to him before they ever participated in a game together.