Is it too early to put the "injury prone" or "made of glass" tag on Stafford? The kid looks great when he's out there, but he just can't seem to stay healthy.
Yes, it's too early. I haven't watched enough of the Lions to make any proclamations about whether the guy is holding onto the ball too long, doesn't have a knack for stepping away from pressure, etc. but his early years as a starter remind me a lot of Matt Schaub. Another guy that was "made of glass", but it's funny how much more durable a guy gets when his line begins pass-protecting and he gets some decent run support. Detroit just needs a couple of upgrades along the O-line and a year of experience for Jahvid Best. I think Stafford remains a MONSTER buy-low in dynasty.
The Lion O-line is pass protecting pretty well this year. I am very concerned about Stafford, a Lion beat writer that is on local radio said that in practice Stafford is always getting dinged up. Some players just get injured easier than others. It appears Stafford is one of those players. That is taking away nothing from his ability, but this will be 19 games missed in two seasons.
The problem is that at the QB spot you are always going to take some good shots no matter how well the o-line plays.
I hear what you're saying and you may very well be right. The tough part about trying to gauge how injury prone a player
will be in the future is that the outcome isn't necessarily reflective of the
% chance of injury occuring. Maybe the truth is Stafford gets injured once every 100 times he's hit that specific way and the average QB is injured 3.5% of the time he's hit that way. In that case, Stafford's actually less injury prone than the average QB, but just unlucky. We'll never know.That's no comfort to Stafford's redraft owners obviously, but I don't think you can look at the results of Stafford's first two years and lump him in as a guy that "just gets injured easier than others".