Scouting Report: Drew Stanton

Scouting Report: Drew Stanton
by Tom Kowalski
Tuesday May 27, 2008, 12:01 AM
Ed. Note: Compare Lions Insider Tom Kowalski's 2007 scouting report on Detroit Lions quarterback Drew Stanton with this year's report below.

Drew Stanton

2008 Scouting Report

In many ways, Stanton is a rookie all over again. Even before Stanton suffered a knee injury early in training camp last year, it was clear that he wasn't going to be a factor in the quarterback race - not after Martz favorite J.T. O'Sullivan was signed as a free agent.

Stanton's knee injury was just severe enough that it qualified him for the injured reserve list and that's what the Lions conveniently - and foolishly - did on Aug. 3. With Stanton out of the way, Martz soon elevated O'Sullivan to the No. 2 spot and Stanton's first year was, for all intents and purposes, finished. After tearing down all his mechanics and instructing him in a new way to do things, Stanton was basically ignored the rest of the season.

It's hard to say how much that really limited Stanton. He was so much in a fog about Martz's complicated offense that he might have never climbed his way out of it last year. But that's just it - by dumping him on IR, they never gave him the chance.

But now that Martz is gone, Stanton is going to get every opportunity to show what he can do. Remember, this was a Matt Millen pick all the way and Millen - especially after the Martz situation - is going to make sure that Stanton gets the chance to succeed. That doesn't mean Stanton will succeed, but the hurdles that have been placed in front him are now gone.

The other thing to remember is why Millen took Stanton. It wasn't because of his rocket arm or any other physical attribute, it was because of the intangibles that make a quarterback successful - production under pressure. A quarterback isn't judged on his completion percentage or passer efficiency rating, he's judged on his ability to make game-winning plays.

Former head coach Steve Mariucci often referred to a study he did that 67 percent of all passing plays don't go as planned. That doesn't necessarily mean that the quarterback is forced to scramble all of those times or the ball is thrown away. Either the quarterback has to move off his first receiver, the receiver has to adjust his route, the quarterback has to step up in the pocket or some other minor adjustment has to be made in the course of a play. Mariucci believed that's what made Brett Favre a Hall of Famer and what made a guy like Jeff Garcia a Pro Bowl player.

Stanton doesn't throw the tightest spiral and he doesn't have a cannon that will make you stand back in awe, but Millen believes he does have the ability to move a football team and score points and win games. You can't do that on the practice field, you've got to prove that in the games. And that's why Stanton is going to get a lot of looks during these upcoming preseason games.