Now they have their answer.
Stafford put the finishing touches on arguably the finest season ever for a Detroit quarterback when he engaged in a New Year's Day shootout with Green Bay's backup quarterback Matt Flynn.
Although Stafford came out on the short end of the 45-41 decision, he had an outstanding game. The first overall pick out of Georgia in the 2009 NFL Draft completed 36 of 59 passes for a club record 520 yards and five touchdowns.
Stafford and Flynn combined for the most passing yards ever in an NFL game -- 971.
Stafford's favorite target, wide receiver
"That dude is just ballin'. That's all I'm going to say," Johnson said. "(He's) putting the ball where it needs to be so we can make big plays. It was just a heck of a year."
Only four quarterbacks in NFL history have passed for more than 5,000 yards in a season. Stafford, who finished the season with 5,038 passing yards, is one of them. Drew Brees has done it twice. Tom Brady and Hall of Famer Dan Marino are the others who have accomplished the feat.
Brian Billick, who coached the Baltimore Ravens to an NFL championship, is now a Fox NFL analyst. He worked Sunday's game and was effusive in his praise of Stafford.
"Right now he's in the upper echelon of quarterbacks with the possibility of becoming one of the elite quarterbacks in the league," Billick said.
Later in the game after Stafford threaded a pass through two Green Bay defenders for a touchdown pass to tight end
Billick was also baffled by the fact that New York's Eli Manning was chosen for the Pro Bowl over Stafford.
"No disrespect to Eli, but how can this guy not be on the team?" Billick wondered.
Stafford's statistics and his leadership certainly make a strong argument for him to join the Packers' Aaron Rodgers as the NFC quarterbacks.
Stafford completed 421 of 663 passes this season -- a 63.5 completion percentage. He threw 41 touchdown passes and was intercepted only 16 times. His quarterback rating for the season was 97.2 and he was over 100 in 10 of Detroit's 16 games, including the last four.
Stafford rewrote the passing section in the Lions' record book this year, erasing many of the marks set by Hall of Famer Bobby Layne. Ironically, Stafford and Layne attended the same Dallas high school.
Four times this season, Stafford has overcome deficits of 13 points or more to pull out a Lions victory. He nearly had a fifth on Sunday when he marched Detroit 93 yards, putting the Lions ahead 41-38 with 2:39 left on the 12-yard TD pass to Scheffler.
Green Bay, however, scored with 1:10 remaining to regain the lead.
It looked like Stafford might bring the Lions back again in the final minute. Two completions to Johnson, who finished with 11 catches for 244 yards, and one to running back
The Packers knew that Stafford would have to pass and they dropped eight defenders into coverage for the last drive. Stafford still completed three consecutive passes.
"They're dropping eight so all the throws on that last drive were really, 'Oh, they almost picked it,'" Stafford said. "That's the way it's going to be the whole way down the field when they have that many guys in coverage.
"We had a chance with a one-on-one rout with Calvin and obviously hindsight is 20-20 and you want to go back there and give him a chance. Nate ran a great route, had some contact. It looked a little bit like he was getting jammed up there a little bit in the middle with some guys as I let it go. The corner (Shields) fell off of the post we had on the outside, made a good play and caught it. It's just disappointing."
There haven't been many disappointments for Stafford and the Lions this season, and they can put Sunday's defeat out of their minds with a win in the first round of the playoffs.
"I think we're going to use this as motivation as a team, understanding that we had a chance, didn't get it done, so we have to go out there and start making it happen," Stafford said. "We have to get a run here. That's what it's all about in the playoffs, playing hot and hopefully we can get that going."
With Stafford at the helm, there's no telling what Detroit can accomplish in the weeks ahead.
