Six years into his career, Matthew Stafford's resume is impressive, but incomplete.
The Lions' star quarterback has yet to move past the wild-card round despite putting up heroic numbers in postseason play (703 yards, 4 TDs, 92.4 rating in two games). He's frequently overshadowed by Calvin Johnson, arguably the best receiver in the game, who gets a lot of the credit for Stafford's success and has a marketable nickname to boot -- the search for Stafford's moniker is an ongoing debate on Reddit.
Most importantly, Stafford can't quite crack that top echelon of NFL quarterbacks.
So what's holding the former first overall draft pick back? His poor completion percentage.
Inaccuracy has been Stafford's calling card his whole career, completing under 60 percent of his passes in four of his six seasons. Of the top 10 passing quarterbacks in 2014, Stafford had the lowest completion percentage (60.3) while attempting the fifth-most passes in the league (602).
However, news out of Lions minicamp is that Stafford has turned things around and is impressing coach Jim Caldwell.
"He's improved," Caldwell told MLive.com on Tuesday. "He has a better feel for the system. You can see our timing's better, receivers have a better sense of the routes that they're running. All around I think we've made some improvement."
"I mean, it's obviously always a work in progress," Stafford offered. "But there's no question we've taken strides forward this spring."
Caldwell went on to say that, concerning Stafford's completion percentage, he expects "an improvement from where he was last year."
It's no surprise that Stafford has been stellar so far with a retooled Lions offense at his disposal.
Detroit added Lance Moore, a 10-year veteran, and rookie Ameer Abdullah, who will replace Reggie Bush as Detroit's dual-threat option out of the backfield, to a unit led by Johnson, Golden Tate and second-year tight end Eric Ebron. Heading into 2015, Stafford might have his most talented receiving corps of his young career.
Now all he has to do is get them the ball.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast discusses the Bills' QB situation, the Odell Beckham Jr. drama and unveils the Superstar Club. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.