ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- One percent. That’s the difference -- something small enough that the majority of people watching the Detroit Lions over the past season-plus won’t even notice. When Matthew Stafford drops back to pass, makes his decisions and fires a throw to a receiver, everything looks the same as it always has.

And that’s a good thing. Except it isn’t quite the same. It’s a little different, a little tighter. A little bit more efficient. Not necessarily in his numbers -- but how he was throwing the ball and how fast his entire motion was from start to finish.

“It’s efficiency in your body movement,” Stafford told ESPN last month. “You know what I mean, like don’t waste motion, right? That’s kind of the thought.”

It’s a process that began in the offseason before the 2017 season, when Stafford altered some of his approach after meeting with California-based quarterback gurus Tom House and Adam Dedeaux at 3DQB. It was the same place his friend, Matt Ryan, went to help improve his game. What they worked on then was an approach on the whole of the quarterback -- not just one specific area.

At the time, Stafford and his then-quarterback coach Brian Callahan said the changes were going to be too small for the lay person to really recognize. But they encompassed everything, from footwork to throwing motion to one thing that could be seen -- how Stafford warmed up.

Often last season, Stafford would be on the sidelines two-plus hours before games moving his arms in circular motions and doing small hand movements. All a different way to loosen up. All part of the new approach he was taking after meeting with House and Dedeaux, whom he also went to again for refinement this offseason.

Some of that refinement also came in his motion, something so small only other quarterbacks and those with intimate knowledge of the position might see.

“When you are born with the ability to one-throw it so naturally and to throw it so well naturally, there’s no reason or justifiable reason for you to go, 'You know what, I want to get my throwing motion to be even more efficient and more efficient and more efficient,'” said Dan Orlovsky, Stafford’s former Lions teammate and a current ESPN analyst. “Just watching him throw, he’s really taken away any non-productive or wasted part of his motion and made it almost very Tiger Woods golf-swing like.

“That’s what it’s like, back in the day, when Tiger Woods decided, 'You know what, I’m going to go through a swing change.' I’ve talked about that with [Stafford]. Just in relation, you took something that was really good and made it even better.”

The change, Orlovsky explained, came down to one degree. He might be throwing the ball at a different plane, or his feet on a set throw might be ever so slightly in a different position. But that has allowed him to have an even more fluid motion than Stafford -- who has always been gifted with a natural, strong arm -- possessed.

Stafford’s throwing mechanics, to the naked eye, looked no different than before. Yet he shortened his throwing motion ever so slightly in an effort to get the ball out faster, to be more on time with his receivers. Orlovsky called the change “truly an eyelash,” something that “is indescribable is the difference.”

But the difference is there. And the stats, kind of, bore that out. Stafford had his best passer rating (99.3) and tied the best QBR (65.2) of his career last season while completing more than 65 percent of his passes for the fourth straight year. While he has had some early struggles -- particularly a four-interception game in the season-opening loss to the Jets -- it’ll be interesting to watch where those numbers go the rest of 2018 (in Weeks 2 and 3, he combined for a 68.5 completion percentage and 101.8 passer rating).

“Just consistency and trying to be repeatable,” Stafford told ESPN earlier this month. “And I think that’s, you know, my biggest, not challenge, but everybody’s challenge, right? Everyone is just trying to be as repeatable as they can possibly be.

“You know, you still have to work on all the off-platform throws and stuff like that, but when the pocket is good in front of you, just be as consistent as you can be. That helps you be as accurate as you can be and all that.”

Not surprisingly, Stafford wouldn’t share many of the secrets of how he made the change and what he did to alter it.

It’s a combination of drills, repetitions and thoughts that happen before practice, during practice and after practice. It has become part of his daily routine, even as his head coach and quarterbacks coach have changed from Jim Caldwell to Matt Patricia and Callahan to George Godsey.

“It has to do with how I warm up, how I start my day before practice,” Stafford said. “Then I look at the tape after practice and see if there’s times where I was good and times where I wasn’t.”

The post-practice sessions will sometimes come with Godsey. When they watch film together, they know they have anywhere from 2.5 to 3 seconds to get rid of the ball after the snap.

As they are watching film, they’ll check off whether a throw had good timing, both in the mechanical operation and the actual time between snap and release. They will often do this on film of seven-on-seven periods, where there is no rush to help understand whether a throw in the period was actually realistic or not.

It has helped, too, that he has been sacked an NFL-low three times so far this season -- a credit to both his ability to get the ball out faster and an offensive line that is blocking better than at any point the past two seasons, when he was sacked 84 times.

Stafford and Godsey also work on compacting his motion in varying practice drills against different pass rushes. As they go through a week, they also figure out if there are certain looks they need to prepare for more based on the opponent. While that doesn’t go into Stafford’s shortened motion, the hair of difference is there to try to avoid pressure and taking sacks, too, along with finding his receivers faster.

“He’s always trying to refine his motion, refine his feet, refine his reads, his communication,” Godsey said. “That’s the thing that separates the tier of quarterbacks that he’s in. He’s always working on his game. He’s always conscious. He’s always watching tape.

“If it’s one little way that he’s kind of looking at a read, opening up his hips, stepping, quickening up his throwing motion. He’s into learning and he’s into getting coached.”

Up until two years ago, that coaching came only from his dad, John Stafford, and his litany of high school, college and professional coaches. Then he went to the quarterback guru and started to make some other changes.

They may be small. They may be unnoticeable. They may also, though, be paying off.