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LMU93
She is saying he is not at the level of Brady, Rodgers and Mahomes. Very true. Never has been. Very likely never will be. And also not what the Rams expected when he was acquired. To say he needs to be for them to win a Super Bowl or worth the draft picks given up is incorrect.
Stafford has had 3 clearly bad games (TEN, SF and MIN). No question. 3 TDs/7 INT in those games. Some bad decisions Sunday vs. MIN that could have cost them that game if not for their running game, defense and special teams all playing well. And horrendous INT like the ones deep in their own territory in those 3 games have to stop. They can and will cost you a playoff game.
But it's also true and fair that Stafford has the 3rd highest QB rating in the league, 4th highest ESPN QBR, is ranked 6th by Football Outsiders, 10th by FiveThirtyEight.com and 12th by PFF. Average those 5 sources and that's 7th overall. I think that's about fair to say what Stafford is. And that is plenty good enough to take them far.
Just cut out the really bad decisions inside your own 20, Matthew.....
Nice post.
It's really hard to have good QB conversations because people go to extremes much like with politics. They have strong, dug-in type feelings and will twist things to match what they see.
Stafford absolutely is not Rodgers. But right now he is a top 3 QB in this league. And what that demonstrates is that many fans only see the faults in their own QB. They don't see the other QBs missing open receivers or making dumb throws. But the passer rating demonstrates that we are actually in good shape at QB. We didn't win 11 games with 2 games remaining by accident or in spite of our QB. He's been a big part of who this team is, good and bad, and they're overall a very good team who is in the mix to win it all.
That is not to say that he doesn't need to play better though. He does. Limiting mistakes in the playoffs is important. Stakes are higher, players are giving it everything they have, even the guys who might not do that during the regular season. It's harder to score. It's easier to be that guy who sends your team home.
I think when the protections are iffy he needs to simplify his game and not try to play the eye game with the safeties and all that. IMO he's trying to do too much at times. Also when he's got heat coming in he needs to throw it out of bounds instead of putting up jump balls which can end up not going your way, not to mention if you miss and it just goes to a defender. It's a discipline thing.
But one thing I think the negative posters are overlooking is that upside. He's been working kinks out of his game all season long, trying to play disciplined within this scheme, and his numbers are very good for his first year in this offense. Last year a third and long meant we were gonna punt. This year it means we still have a chance. We do need to improve in the redzone. There's all manner of stats out there showing the importance of that in the playoffs and as usual McVay's offense has not been good there.
Overall I think it's sad to see fans crapping all over a team as good as this one though. Makes loading this site feel like a chore tbh. Nothing wrong with fans sharing their takes and having diverse opinions but man sometimes this site is so gloom and doom you'd think we're a 5 win team. Painful.
