It Takes a Stupid Fan to Think Stafford is Not Great

This isn't Hollywood folks, it is real NFL Football. Players on bad teams tend to lose. A lot. It doesn't matter how good they are, if they don't get enough help, they will lose to better teams. You wont get many promos for games saying "Stafford vs Brady". You will see them more in other sports. "Tyson vs Holyfield", "Verlander vs Scherzer", "Lebron vs Durant"!  These all make good promos because in other sports one player can sometime pick a team up and carry it on his back like they do in Hollywood movies. Its not something you see in the NFL. You will see a promo like that once in a while but they don't get near the attention as in other sports for one very simple reason. The NFL is the ultimate in "Team" sports!

Every time I hear someone say "Stafford's not that great! He never wins big games!", I want to slam my forehead into my desk. Since it is hard to type with a concussion when you are a search and destroy typist, I am stuck with just shaking my head slowly and mumbling something about people not knowing anything about football. Every time anyone lifts an NFL player up above another who has bigger stats only because he has Superbowl rings, I look up and ask God why he had to place so many stupid people on the Earth. It is the biggest problem with the world placing so many laws on us. It derails the process of Natural selection!

Another great cliche that uses enough logic to make a goldfish look smart? "Stafford gets all his yards against prevent defenses in the fourth quarter."

Can someone please point out that last year Stafford had more yards in the 2nd and in the 3rd quarters than he had in the 4th quarters!

The worst thing is? These aren't even the dumbest of the lot! Oh no! They have a big brother when it comes to stupidity! The worst ones are those who will comment and laugh at me and say I dont know anything about football when I say Stafford is an elite quarterback who has been stuck on a bad team.

Seriously though, this is not Hollywood. Players don't "will" bad teams to victory over much better teams. On occasion, a bad team can beat a good team, but its not because one player placed them on his back and carried them. It is because the entire team put in their best effort and catch the good team on a bad day.  There are many who think Emmett Smith is a better running back than Barry Sanders.  No, seriously! There are. Stop laughing. Simply because Smith has Superbowl Rings and the all time rushing yards record. They don't even acknowledge that Sanders had the record wrapped up before retiring early. They don't even consider the fact that if Barry had been behind the Cowboys offensive line, that he would have had nearly 2,000 yards every year.  It is simple logic here. If two players are similar in stats year to year but one is on a great team and a great line blocking for him, and the other has a line with two good players and three bad ones? The guy who is doing just as much with less to work with is the better player. Hands down!  For some reason people refuse to use this simple logic with Stafford.

Stafford has 7 consecutive seasons of 4,000+ yards in his 9 year career so far. Only one has more consecutive years of it. Drew Brees. Brady only has 9 total in his 17 years. Manning had 14 total and might have had 12 or 13 in a row if not for his one injured year that split them up. Brees has done it 12 straight times now. No other QB has come close to matching these guys. Even Aaron Rodgers has not done this more than twice in a row yet.

Peyton Manning = 17 seasons, seasons over 4,000 yards = 14, consecutive = 6

Tom Brady = 17 seasons, seasons over 4,000 yards = 9, consecutive = 5

Drew Brees = 16 seasons, seasons over 4,000 yards = 12, consecutive = 12

Matthew Stafford = 9 seasons, seasons over 4,000 yards = 7, consecutive = 7

Then of course people will say its easy to put up a bunch of yards when you throw so many passes, right?  Wrong!

Stafford is different than these others for one reason. He has had less help on his team than the others through his career.  In his 9 seasons, Stafford has only had seven 100 yard rushers spread out through 4 different seasons to take some pressure off his back.  Look, there are two ways of moving the ball in the NFL. Passing and Running. The Lions have never had a run game behind Stafford. This is essentially the same as the Lions trotting Stafford out onto the field every week and just announcing to the other team, "We cant run the ball. You know it. We know it. Everyone knows we have to pass the ball. Try and stop us!" And Stafford still succeeds enough to put up numbers with the best ever. To make it even harder on him, only one season has Stafford enjoyed a good defense that would consistently get him the ball back to give him more opportunities. He has to make the most of the natural process of the drives.

The Lions have had zero run game. They have had bad to average defenses. Every year they go into the season with Stafford's arm and if that fails they have nothing else to offer. For the most part, Stafford has never even enjoyed a real good blocking offensive line to let him enjoy a clean pocket.  In other words, he has never had the luxuries in a game that Brady, Brees, Manning and Rodgers have had in their careers.

What those other QBs have done is nothing less than outstanding. Their numbers make them elite. Some of the greatest to ever play the game. For Matthew Stafford to match them under his circumstances? That is nothing short of phenomenal.  If you think he isnt elite, then show me another average or even decent QB who has put up even close to similar numbers. There have been a whole ton of bad teams in the history of the NFL who couldn't run the ball. Who had to depend on QBs passing the ball a lot. Do you know why there are no others who match Stafford's numbers? Because they were not good enough to do it. Why didn't they get as many opportunities to throw the ball a million times? Because they didn't succeed enough with the chances they had and had to give the other team the ball more.

Stafford is not on pace to be one of the great QBs of this era. He is on pace to make a run at being the greatest of all time. All it will take is for him to stay healthy, and by the way, he is one of the toughest QBs of all time too. 

Oh I'm sorry. I forgot that he cant be called elite without winning a Superbowl.  Well for everyone who thinks those rings make a difference to whether a specific player is great or not? With a little luck maybe someone will design a Speak and Spell for NFL fans someday so they can understand this is a "TEAM" Sport!