Matthew Stafford is looking more dynamic than ever for the Lions

The Detroit Lions are in first place in the NFC North and are showing no signs of slowing down. Led by quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Lions boast a high-flying passing offense this season that looks much different from the one they’ve fielded in recent years.

Stafford has always been a quarterback who throws for a lot of yards. He threw for more than 5,000 yards in 2011 and has broken 4,200 yards the past four seasons. He’s also thrown a lot of touchdowns every season, none more than the 41 he put up in 2011, when he had wide receiver Calvin Johnson at his best.

But the Lions as a whole have been ... well, let’s just say bad ... for the majority of Stafford’s career. In his seven years in the league, the Lions have had a winning record just twice. Now, they’re sitting at 8-4 on the season and coming off a 28-13 road win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

It’s true the Lions have improved on defense this season, and it’s true that the weapons around Stafford are playing well. But there’s more to it than that. Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter has the Lions running a much more dynamic, timing-predicated offense in 2016.

Not to take anything away from Stafford in previous seasons, but he gained a lot of those yards throwing the ball up in the air for Johnson and other receivers to come down with it on a jump ball. This year, though, he’s on another level.

Below we’re going to take a quick look at what has changed.

Cooter was the Lions quarterback coach in 2014 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in Week 8 last season. Since his promotion, Stafford has thrown 41 touchdowns against nine interceptions.

On Sunday, Cooter’s offense was running like a well-oiled machine. The caveat here is that the Saints have one of the worst passing defenses in the league, but Stafford has found success doing the same things against better teams throughout this season. The Lions have been running short timing routes to get the ball out quickly, and they have the talent to put it off.

Against the Saints, Stafford attempted 42 passes, and only eight of those passes were categorized as deep passes. The rest were called “short,” including the following examples:

Stafford briefly fakes the handoff, but this is all just a timing play. He immediately finds his man, in this case Andre Roberts, and hits him in stride on a slant. The Lions have done this a lot this season, and it doesn’t stop working. This is a 16-yard gain on a short pass. The Lions would later put up points on the possession.

This play gets some extra juice from the fact that Golden Tate is pretty good at making defenders look silly, but ultimately, Stafford’s plan was to throw past the outside rusher to one of the two receivers on the left. He went to Tate, and this short pass went for a quick and easy 15-yard gain.

It’s worth noting that this kind of timing route isn’t rare for any team in the league. Get a big body out there and put the ball in front of it — that’s the goal. But the Lions have rarely had the talent or the timing to execute this, and here they handle it without problems.

So, Stafford and the Lions are clicking this season and he still has a really great arm and the ability to find his open man for huge gains. Big chunks of yardage will always be his specialty:

If Stafford’s receivers can get open, then he’s going to find them. He looks on both sides of the field and eventually finds T.J. Jones in a weak spot of New Orleans’ zone defense. The play goes for 36 yards after a beautiful pass from Stafford in the window it needed to be in. A fraction later and the safety is there.

And it’s no surprise that Tate shows up again. Yes, there’s some blown coverage and bad angles taken by the Saints. But Stafford, with the pocket collapsing around him, delivers a bomb as he gets hit by a man much bigger than himself. Tate takes it in for a 66-yard touchdown, rewarding his quarterback.

Following Sunday’s win over the Saints, Stafford has 291 of 433 completions for 3,224 yards (67.2 percent) with 21 touchdowns and five picks. He’s averaging 7.4 yards per throw despite having fewer deep attempts overall and has a higher QB rating than he’s ever had in his career (100.5).

He won’t match his raw yardage or touchdown totals from 2011, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. The Lions simply look like a better team this year.

And despite this being his eighth season in the league, Stafford is still just 28 years old. He may have quietly gone under the radar as the guy who racks up yards on a miserable team, but he’s actually getting better and in fact, looks like he’s hitting his absolute peak. The Lions are going to be a dangerous team so long as they can keep it together.