Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has had an injury-filled first two years in the NFL. Most of those injuries have been related to his shoulders, including two last season that hurt his throwing shoulder. To fix the injury issues and hopefully prevent them in the future, Stafford had surgery on his right shoulder in January. Since then he has been rehabbing and working to become 100 percent healthy, and Stafford said on Monday he is back to full health.
"I feel great," Stafford said before a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan promotional appearance at Grand Rapids Community College. "Healthwise, I feel as good as I ever have, so I’m ready to go."
Stafford is not only ready to go, but he is excited for the 2011 season. He is pumped to be healthy and to get to play with the players the Lions selected in the draft.
"I’m excited about, No. 1, being healthy going into the year and, hopefully, playing all 16 games or more," Stafford said. "We have all the core guys, major guys, coming back, which is great, and we’ve added some new guys: (Nick) Fairley and Leshoure and Young. Those are guys that we’re looking to help us out as much as they can early on, and I’m excited about it."
Stafford actually threw passes to Titus Young over the weekend. Young flew to Atlanta to work out with Calvin Johnson and Stafford, getting in some time with them before a larger contingent of players gets together for workouts this week.