ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- How do you know Matthew Stafford is comfortable in the Detroit Lions offense? It doesn't have to do with his numbers (they're good). It doesn't have to do with the wins and losses (that's not as good). And it doesn't have to do with what his coaches might be saying.

Nah, for the Lions quarterback, he knows how comfortable he is in the offense based on how many different players he's actually throwing to.

"I think we're doing a really good job of spreading the ball around, not that we didn't do it last year," Stafford said. "A lot of guys on this team getting a lot of touches and catches, just understanding the offense.

"The more comfortable I am, the better I know it, the more guys are probably going to touch the football. That's probably one area that we've done a really nice job of."

Of Matthew Stafford's 115 targets, he's thrown to nine different receivers. Five of them, through three games, have double-digit targets: Marvin Jones (29), Golden Tate (21), Eric Ebron (20), Theo Riddick (19) and Anquan Boldin (16).

Eight players are being targeted on at least 14 percent of their routes, which means Stafford is at least trying to use as many players as possible.

It might help explain why Stafford is on pace to have the best season of his career. He's completed a career-high 67.5 percent of his passes (just up from last year's total of 67.2 percent). He has a passer rating of 105.0 -- and he's never had a full-season passer rating over 100 before. His QBR of 76.1 is 10 points better than his QBR for any full season in his career.

He's ranked in the Top 10 of almost every major passing category, including in the Top 5 in yards (third, 985), completions (third, 81), yards per pass attempt (fourth, 8.21) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (fifth, 3.5).

And in all the ways the Lions offense might have changed, here's another one that has likely helped him.

"There's probably less of the 'Hold-it-as-long-as-you-can, throw-it-60-yards' kind of plays," Stafford said. "But we're still trying to test the defense vertically in a number of different ways."

That has meant throws to Jones -- the NFL's leading receiver -- and Ebron. It has also meant even more comfort in certain play calls from coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and making sure those get implemented when necessary.

"Big plays in this league come in all sorts of fashions, whether it's throwing a screen to a guy and having it blocked up, and him making a run after the catch," Stafford said. "All sorts of stuff, doesn't always have to be the ball thrown over the defense to be an explosive play.

"We've got to find ways to just get these guys as open as possible and let them go do their thing."

So far, Stafford's been doing that this season at a pace beyond anything he's done before.