Drew Stanton Winning the Daunte Culpepper-Matthew Stafford QB Battle in Detroit

It’s a good thing Drew Stanton is a positive guy.

If he wasn’t, he might need therapy, considering the way his career with the Detroit Lions has gone.

In two years, Stanton has gone from second-round savior with lots of potential to forgotten third wheel...with lots of potential.

So neglected is Stanton that despite head coach Jim Schwartz declaring that all three quarterbacks were going to get equal reps in camp, and despite Stanton’s notably strong performance in both preseason games, it is unlikely that he will be given an opportunity to even think about being the backup.

A second-round draft pick in 2007, Stanton spent his rookie season on injured reserve, even though his sprained knee would likely have been healthy during the regular season.

The rationale? Since Stanton was a rookie project and was going to miss the preseason with his injury, they shut him down to let J.T. O’Sullivan and Dan Orlovsky jockey for position.

Besides, it would take the pressure off so he could learn the ropes of an NFL offense from the bench, and then-offensive coordinator Mike Martz wanted to tinker with his throwing motion, as if he were a posable action figure.

When 2008 rolled around, Martz and O’Sullivan were shown the door to San Francisco, bumping Stanton to a distant third on the depth chart. However, Stanton, under new offensive coordinator Jim Coletto, was forced to start from scratch in his development.

Being third on the depth chart, the only way Stanton would see any playing time is if the worst happened and both starter Jon Kitna and backup Orlovsky went down with injuries.

Or not.

As it turned out, the stars aligned and Kitna was shut down for the year. A couple of weeks later, Orlovsky was injured, leaving only Stanton and “just because” reserve quarterback Drew Henson on the roster.

Stanton was ready for his first career start.

Four days prior to it, the Lions signed “retired” quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who weighed as much as an offensive lineman and was in worse shape.

Culpepper got the start with the team’s playbook strapped to his arm, because according to the coaches, Stanton would have “embarrassed himself” had he played.

As it turned out, Stanton split time with Culpepper in Week 10, since Culpepper hadn’t had time to practice certain sets.

Culpepper went 5-for-10 for 104 yards and an interception.

Stanton “embarrassed himself” to the tune of 6-for-8 for 96 yards and a touchdown.

That performance seems to have continued in the preseason, with Stanton running the best drives and throwing the best passes of the day.

Don’t believe me? You don’t have to. Here are the stats from the first two preseason games, ripped directly from NFL.com:

Player	Att	Comp	Yds	Comp %	Yds/Att	TD	TD %	INT	INT %	Long	Sck	Sack/Lost	Rating
Matthew Stafford	27	12	148	44.4	5.5	1	3.7	2	7.4	28	0	0	43.4
Drew Stanton	25	13	180	52.0	7.2	2	8.0	0	0.0	45	0	0	102.1
Daunte Culpepper	22	15	127	68.2	5.8	0	0.0	0	0.0	20	1	6	83.0

Statistically, Stanton is winning the battle. He leads in every category except completion percentage, where Culpepper holds the edge.

Add in the fact that Stanton has scrambled six times for 68 yards this preseason, and you have to wonder why he’s not more of a factor in the quarterback battle.

I understand that Stanton has a few issues. I know he was 5-for-12 against the Browns, and I know that he’s performing well against second- and third-string defenses, and that the situation might be very different if he were facing stronger competition.

But this is preseason. Isn’t this where we find out what we have? Culpepper and Stafford have both gotten starts this preseason, so would it be so terrible to give Stanton some reps with the first team this week? They have absolutely nothing to lose.

Even if the coaching staff has no interest in starting Stanton in the regular season, he’s still a second rounder with upside. A strong preseason performance could boost his trade stock, if nothing else.

Or they could discover they’re sitting on a gem of a talent. We don’t know, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we ever will.