Turf Show Times
It seems crazy to say, but at 37 years old, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is playing the best football of his career. That also just so happens to be at an MVP level. While Stafford may not be as exciting as Drake Maye, Patrick Mahomes, or Josh Allen, the fact that he’s been on an all-time heater is exciting.
A big part of winning MVP is storylines and there was no storyline this season bigger than Matthew Stafford’s back. The questions were fair. Players like Tony Romo and Philip Rivers struggled with bulged discs in their backs and Stafford was managing it much later in his career. After missing training camp, there were questions on whether or not Stafford would play Week 1. If he played Week 1, what would happen when he took his first big hit? How much torque could his back handle every time he dropped back to pass?
Instead of looking like he’s been managing an injury, Stafford has looked like the best quarterback in the NFL. The raw numbers and weekly milestones speak for themselves. He’s fifth in yards per game and leads the league in touchdowns with 30. No other quarterback has more than 23. The gap between Stafford at the top with 30 and Dak Prescott and Jared Goff in second with 23 is the same as the gap between second and Caleb Williams at 15.
Stafford has thrown 27 consecutive touchdown passes which is an NFL record and hasn’t thrown an interception in 308 pass attempts. Only five quarterbacks in NFL history have at least 30 touchdown passes and five-or-fewer interceptions in their team’s first 11 games of a season. It’s worth noting that four of them won the MVP and the one that didn’t lost to a player that did win the MVP.
The advanced numbers only add to Stafford’s MVP case. He has the highest passing grade via PFF through 12 weeks. He is second in big-time throws and big-time throw rate. A big-time throw is a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field or into a tighter window. Stafford is also third in the NFL in hero-throw rate which is the percentage of extraordinary throws a quarterback makes that maximizes the result of the play.
If the MVP is all about the player that is most valuable, no quarterback has been more valuable than Stafford. The Rams quarterback leads the NFL in FTN Fantasy’s “DYAR” metric which measures a player’s cumulative value above or below a replacement-level alternative. In fact, the gap between Stafford at one with 1065 DYAR and Maye at two with 766 is more than Maye at two and Allen at 11. Stafford also tops the leaderboard in quarterback DVOA.
As if that wasn’t enough, Stafford is third in EPA per dropback and has the NFL’s best quarterback rating. He’s also fifth in ESPN’s QBR.
The numbers speak for themselves and Stafford finally got to showcase what he’s...
