Detroit Lions: Should Backup Quarterback Drew Stanton Stay or Go?

Drew Stanton is a fun specimen. Opinions vary widely on him, from "great, underappreciated gamer of a quarterback" to "not even that good when he was in college."

However, no coaching staff's opinion (and there have been plenty of them since Stanton was drafted) has placed him any higher than third on the depth chart.

Yet Stanton has a great deal more film on file than your average third-string quarterback. Some of that film is of him losing football games with terrible plays; some of it is of him winning them with good ones.

The consensus is that Stanton has done enough to earn himself a backup role somewhere in the league.

But will that be in Detroit?

2010 Performance

All over the map.

Stanton's lowest point this season was against the New York Jets, when with less than two minutes remaining and a lead, he came in to relieve a re-injured Matthew Stafford. Stanton threw a bad screen pass that fell incomplete, allowing the New York Jets enough time to complete a miracle comeback victory.

That or his ill-conceived attempt at the Dougie.

But Stanton was 2-1 as a starter this season and did two things that no Lions quarterback has been able to do since 2007: beat a division rival and win on the road.

He finished the season with a 4:3 touchdown-interception ratio, completing 58 percent of his passes. Not bad considering his greatest knock is his passing accuracy.

Remember also that Stanton is a scrambling quarterback. His legs are a weapon, and in limited playing time this year, he ran with it 18 times for 113 yards and a touchdown (which resulted in his infamous Dougie).

At the beginning of the 2010 season, it was pretty well assumed that Stanton would be out of the league after this season, like so many Matt Millen draft picks before him. His performance this year has more than likely saved his career, which is more telling about what he's accomplished in 2010 than any statistic.

Team Interest

The Lions' interest in Stanton has been minuscule since the day he was drafted. He was drafted to be a Mike Martz project, so Martz invented a reason to put him on IR and tinkered with his throwing motion.

The next season, Martz found himself out of a job, and Stanton became a man with no country.

Every coaching staff since has acted like they were doing the man a favor just keeping him on the roster, but would rather swallow crushed glass sooner than let him play.

In 2008, the Lions dug up the corpse of Daunte Culpepper and started him after four days of practice when they were down to their third string.

In 2009, the Lions drafted Matthew Stafford, who spent most of the year injured. Culpepper started all but one game in Stafford's absence. After months of no production, the Lions finally started Stanton in Week 16. After a lackluster performance, they went back to the guaranteed lackluster performance of Culpepper for the season finale.

In 2010, Stanton finally got a chance to shine, but not before Shaun Hill got a couple of games to play with a broken arm. Stanton's reward for snapping two long losing streaks in successive weeks and giving the Lions their first winning streak since 2007? A warm spot back on the bench.

With Hill signed to an extension through 2012, it's fairly clear that if the Lions are interested in giving Stanton another contract, it's going to be a tiny contract for a return trip to the third string.

Player Interest

Given the way Stanton has been treated by the Lions (below-average treatment for an average talent), I can't imagine he'll have much interest in returning, especially considering how there will almost certainly be more money and opportunities waiting for him elsewhere.

Re-signing with the Lions will mean more seasons of being treated like the slow kid that your mother forced you to invite to your birthday party. "Yeah, he can hang around I guess," says the Lions organization, "but don't let him touch anything, and he can't come outside and play ball with the rest of the kids."

Of course, there's no guarantee of him getting any better treatment elsewhere, but getting a shot at the No. 2 spot on the depth chart for the first time in his career is a start.

If Stanton values his future in the NFL at all, he's gone. This is, after all, a guy who was a former second-round pick (though a Millen second-round pick is like anyone else's late sixth-rounder) and has a 2-2 record as a starter on teams with overall losing records.

Shaun Hill started his career much the same as Stanton has: mostly ignored for years by the team that drafted him (Minnesota, in Hill's case). He was able to resurrect that career with a change of scenery, and now he can be considered one of the stronger backup quarterbacks in the league.

Stanton, like Hill, has the potential to make something of his career, even if that's only as a journeyman backup.

But it won't happen as a Detroit Lion.

Miscellaneous Factors

Stanton is about to be faced with living and playing football outside the state of Michigan for the first time in his life.

Having grown up in Farmington Hills, played his college ball at Michigan State and spent his first four professional years with the Lions, Stanton has basically been able to stay within about a 100-mile radius of his hometown for all the home games in his career.

Now, at age 26, Stanton might end up in Oakland, Miami or any number of other places that could face him with a bit of culture shock.

It's hard for some people to understand, but lots of people actually enjoy living in Michigan, even around Detroit. I'm one of them. Stanton, clearly, is another.

Will that hometown discount be enough to keep him in Detroit? Almost certainly not; it would be career suicide. But location could affect where he does go. He might be more tempted to sign in, say, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Minnesota—places with proximity and cultural similarities to his home state—than Seattle or San Francisco.

But then, Stanton is a football player first, Michigan native second. More than likely, he follows the money. If he finds a decent contract to back up a poorly established/fragile starter, he should take it.

He just might be somebody yet.