Quarterback Matthew Stafford is the Andre Drummond of the Lions

Team Success

Born into Darkness

Drummond and Stafford were both drafted by their respective franchises in their darkest times.

Drummond came to a Pistons team that finished the 2011-12 season 24-41, landing them the ninth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft they used to pick their center.

The Pistons roster for Drummond’s first three seasons was made up of the likes of Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum, Charlie Villanueva, and Josh Smith.

Those teams won 29, 29, and 32 games in those first three campaigns with Drummond.

For Stafford, he may have come into a worse scenario.

The Lions earned the No.1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft by losing every single game the season before. They were coming off their infamous 0-16 season.

Stafford similarly came into a roster filled with would-be minor leaguers if the NFL had one.

Luckily, the 0-16 Lions had an All-Time talent at wide receiver in Calvin Johnson. The rest? Yikes.

The Lions would go on to win two games in Stafford’s first season and six games in his injury-plagued sophomore campaign.

His third season the team overachieved, won 10 games, and made the playoffs.

Since each player’s first three years, their teams have seen mixed bags of successes and failures.

The Pistons of the Drummond Era

One player does not have ultimate control over a team’s success.

However, when it comes to Drummond and Stafford, they tend to be the two top targets on their respective teams based on their success.

For Drummond, he has never seen his team be the worst team in the NBA – but they have never been close to the best.

In seven seasons, Drummond’s Pistons are 195-323 (a 37 percent win percentage).

The Pistons have made two playoff appearances during that time – both ending in first-round sweeps.

However, with the additions of Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson in the latter half of the Drummond era, the team has become more consistent – competing for a playoff spot in spring for the last three seasons.

The Lions of the Stafford Era

Same Old Lions.

That’s the phrase that comes around on social media after every Lions loss.

They earned that treatment before Stafford’s tenure but have not escaped it in his 11 seasons with the team.

The Lions were 71-89 through the 2018 season since drafting Stafford. That is a 44 percent win percentage – only seven percent higher than Drummond’s Pistons.

It is important to note Stafford missed 19 games among his first two seasons.

Based on the team’s success, Stafford sits in a similar space as Drummond: A player that puts up impressive individual numbers but oftentimes the brunt of fans’ ire following a loss.