Detroit Lions: Matt Stafford, the NFL’s most underrated quarterback?

Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford has been putting up fantastic numbers for years. Despite that, he’s continuously overlooked by many.

When Matt Stafford was drafted with the first overall pick back in 2009, the hopes were that he could bring the Detroit Lions out of irrelevancy. Since then, Stafford has a 60-65 record. While the record isn’t great, it’s much better than what the Lions were producing before he arrived. Stafford’s also put up fantastic career numbers and has a penchant for leading fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives.

Despite above-average numbers and helping to resurrect a dead team, Stafford is constantly forgotten about by fans and the media alike. He’ll be brought up plenty when talking about fantasy quarterbacks, but never in the conversation when talking about the best true quarterbacks in the NFL.

One knock on Stafford for a long time, was Calvin Johnson. Anyone could look good if they got to throw the ball to Megatron right?

In the two seasons since Johnson retired, Stafford has 53 touchdowns compared to 20 interceptions. He’s thrown for 8,763 yards on an over 65 percent completion rate. 2018’s 99.3 QB rating was the best of Stafford’s career.

It’s also important to remember that the quarterback has done all this with little-to-no running game for support. Since Stafford joined the team, the Lions have had one 1,000-yard rusher (Reggie Bush with 1,006 yards in 2013). Detroit’s running woes were so bad at one point that, in 2011, their leading rusher (Jahvid Best) ran for 390 yards on the season.

So what’s holding him back? His team’s record isn’t always great, but that could be said for a lot of quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins is constantly beloved by the media, and he holds a losing record in the NFL as well.

It’s definitely not the stats either. In 2018, Stafford was sixth in the NFL in completion percentage and fourth in touchdown passes. Meanwhile, he was third in the NFL in passing yards. The only other quarterback to be in the top six of all three of those categories last season was Tom Brady. Arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time.

Now, not everyone will underrate Matt Stafford. That being said, he’s been disrespected plenty in the past. Try to find some quarterback rankings for the 2019 season. You’ll see some quarterbacks that you could make an argument for like Russell Wilson, Cam Newton and Cousins. However, you’ll also find head scratchers like Andrew Luck (who hasn’t played a regular season game in what seems like forever) and Jimmy Garoppolo (who has very little experience and not that impressive of numbers).

The Detroit Lions have become a competitive NFL team under Matt Stafford. Stafford’s helped this transition by consistently putting up well-above-average numbers on a yearly basis. He’s still left out of many discussions when considering the best quarterbacks in the league though — and that needs to change.