Matt Stafford Traded to Rams

[Merlin]

Figure this is as good a spot to post this and vent a little.

I have never been a big-PFF guy.

Watching NFL Now on the NFL Network just a few minutes ago, and its guest was George Chahrouri who works at PFF and has the title of Data Scientist.

George, who looks to be in his late-20s or early-30s was evaluating the QBs who have recently changed teams, including Matthew Stafford.

On Stafford, PFF’s Data Scientist stated that Matthew Stafford had never cracked PFF’s top-QBs despite having some ‘great supporting casts’; and then added that Stafford had ‘a great supporting cast this past season’

That did not sound right to me ... but I am not a Data Scientist ... so I did some quick research.

The Lions rush offense ranked 30th in the NFL this past season. 30th!

Apparently, when PFF considers whether a Quarterback has a ‘great supporting cast’ the running game is NOT factored in.

I think the value of PFF is in their articles. Some of them are quite good and you can't really find analytical takes like that anywhere else that are of as good quality. They do cite their own rankings and stats in those articles, granted. But they have some good minds there IMO.

Re: rankings when they are posted up real soon after games it makes me think there's not a lot of diligence. Not to mention some players and positions they tend to get wrong. All that aside though what they do is pretty cool. It's nice to have a reference and I think it's really valuable for media types who want to quickly check their hot takes.

 

[Tano]

Maybe you’re right but the Lions were 27th (tied) in yards-per-carry.

Yeah but I noticed that the yards per carry went dramatically down for whatever reason in the second half too.

I don't know why that is the case when teams are behind and maybe I am wrong but it seems to be a trend around the league that once a team gets far behind their yards per carry becomes pure crap.

Maybe it's my imagination and I am wrong on this.

 

[jrry32]

As you pointed out and I stated in one of my previous posts, it's not good to view potential draft picks in that way. There's almost always a better move a team could have made.

We could have possibly gotten Mahomes which would have been better - but armed with the information we had at the time, deemed trading up for Goff was the best move.

Fast forward three years, didn't win a Super Bowl: we could have possibly gotten (insert new top QB here) with a draft pick we traded for Stafford - but armed with the information we had at the time, deemed trading for Stafford was the right move.

Obviously if you don't think Stafford is an upgrade over Goff you're not going to agree with the trade though - that is not a point that I want to keep debating.

But in both cases for me, the trades will be a win if we're better (Goff trade already a win) and a fail if we're worse - previously I said the offense just needed to be better, but I agree that the loss of future picks does require the team to be better overall, with some caveats for what that means to me, but don't want to get into it here.

I think 2020 Stafford is an upgrade on 2020 Goff, but 2021 Goff is likely better than 2020 Goff. Meanwhile, I think the typical Stafford over the past few years isn't enough of an upgrade over the typical Goff to be worth what we paid. That's where I stand on the deal. And I still think Goff has upside because of his age and experience level.

 

[jrry32]

Figure this is as good a spot to post this and vent a little.

I have never been a big-PFF guy.

Watching NFL Now on the NFL Network just a few minutes ago, and its guest was George Chahrouri who works at PFF and has the title of Data Scientist.

George, who looks to be in his late-20s or early-30s was evaluating the QBs who have recently changed teams, including Matthew Stafford.

On Stafford, PFF’s Data Scientist stated that Matthew Stafford had never cracked PFF’s top-QBs despite having some ‘great supporting casts’; and then added that Stafford had ‘a great supporting cast this past season’

That did not sound right to me ... but I am not a Data Scientist ... so I did some quick research.

The Lions rush offense ranked 30th in the NFL this past season. 30th!

Apparently, when PFF considers whether a Quarterback has a ‘great supporting cast’ the running game is NOT factored in.

I wouldn't call Stafford's supporting cast this year "great." But he has had great supporting casts in Detroit in the past. And yes, you can have a great supporting cast without having a good running game.

 

[jrry32]

Goff limited the offense. We could see it. McVay knew it. McVay didn’t like it and was frustrated by Goff’s lack of progress which was more of a regression.

McVay thinks he has a SuperBowl roster, so he made the hard decision. I don’t this was a whimsical decision. He gave it a good go and decided it was time to move on. Unless anyone here knows more about what McVay wants from his offense or what he thinks he wants from his QB, then that’s an incredible feat and they should be using it for more than readings football coaches mind.

McVay gets to make his decisions, and these forums exist to discuss whether or not he's right. Nobody here needs to be able to read his mind to give a take on whether he's right or wrong. I've been wrong. You've been wrong. McVay has been wrong. We're all human. Ultimately, McVay's opinion is the one that matters, but what fun would this place be if we didn't play some Armchair GM?

 

[MachS]

I wouldn't call Stafford's supporting cast this year "great." But he has had great supporting casts in Detroit in the past. And yes, you can have a great supporting cast without having a good running game.

You dont want to call the 31st ranked rushing attack, 32nd rated defense, and a lack of #1 WR out for almost the entire season a "great" supporting cast? What a shocker. His team was atrocious last year.

Still the guy put up better numbers than Goff last year who had the #1 rated defense, a top 10 running game, and all healthy WR. How is this debating still raging on??? My god.

 

[FrantikRam]

I think 2020 Stafford is an upgrade on 2020 Goff, but 2021 Goff is likely better than 2020 Goff. Meanwhile, I think the typical Stafford over the past few years isn't enough of an upgrade over the typical Goff to be worth what we paid. That's where I stand on the deal. And I still think Goff has upside because of his age and experience level.

I respect that. My stance is that McVay and our culture will have a tremendous impact on Stafford and that we upgraded the QB position pretty dramatically. Can't wait to see it come together.

 

[jrry32]

I respect that. My stance is that McVay and our culture will have a tremendous impact on Stafford and that we upgraded the QB position pretty dramatically. Can't wait to see it come together.

I hope you're right about Stafford. I'd rather be wrong on him and see us in the Super Bowl.

 

[Merlin]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUCR1h_-iQmzmCmc2eCtlsiYA&v=0kTdgB10hjQ&feature=emb_rel_end

 

[Memento]

I hope you're right about Stafford. I'd rather be wrong on him and see us win the Super Bowl.

Fixed.

 

[BuffaloRam]

Is the goal of this thread to get to 150 pages?

 

[RamDino]

The Rams have Stafford locked up for two years... correct? So he will be going into his contract year in 2022? If he and the offense have a great season next year, which is very possible, I wonder if his agent might try to cash in? After all, this might be his last chance at a big contract, and he also holds of lot of power, since the Rams gave up a lot to get him. I would start at 40 million per year if I was his agent. Has anyone else thought about this?

 

[ottoman89]

The Rams have Stafford locked up for two years... correct? So he will be going into his contract year in 2022? If he and the offense have a great season next year, which is very possible, I wonder if his agent might try to cash in? After all, this might be his last chance at a big contract, and he also holds of lot of power, since the Rams gave up a lot to get him. I would start at 40 million per year if I was his agent. Has anyone else thought about this?

Yeah, we have 2 seasons of him.

I wonder if at his age, if he wouldn't take a team friendly deal to try have a few SB runs (I hope he does this).

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

McVay gets to make his decisions, and these forums exist to discuss whether or not he's right. Nobody here needs to be able to read his mind to give a take on whether he's right or wrong. I've been wrong. You've been wrong. McVay has been wrong. We're all human. Ultimately, McVay's opinion is the one that matters, but what fun would this place be if we didn't play some Armchair GM?

I agree. I always shoot down the, " You aren't an NFL coach so you aren't qualified" posts.

I responded in general after reading several pages. Some of the takes were ridiculously off base. Some argue what they know, others seem to argue based on what they don't.

 

[iamme33]

Is the goal of this thread to get to 150 pages?

it is not a good discussion unless it gets around 250 pages

 

[Mojo Ram]

Is the goal of this thread to get to 150 pages?

300

 

[iamme33]

it's why I couldn't care less about the first round picks

iamme33
i guess this hole thing boils down to what you think draft picks are worth. just out of curiosity is there an amount of picks that you would consider to many to give in this trade. i look back starting with the goff trade and see we have given up 7 1st rounders and who knows how many lower round picks. me personally i think we could have hit on some very good players with that many picks and they would have been cheep labor. i guess we all have our own point of view on this so i will just say i hope you are right cause it seems that is the direction we are heading

 

[Angry Ram]

Sometimes I go back and re-read the first 10 pages or so. Hilarious stuff.

 

[BatteringRambo]

I admit, there's likely 1-2 knee-jerk responses from me and I admit when I was vehemently wrong/over reacted. I guess when you support the Rams you support them, and I was a Goff caddy ya know. It only took a sober next day for me to realize we truly have Matthew Stafford and threw some extra cheddar the Lions way. Stafford will ignite we all know it.

 

[jrry32]

Sometimes I go back and re-read the first 10 pages or so. Hilarious stuff.

I still don't like it. But like Peter Schrager said, McVay forced the front office's hand and made this happen. The pressure is on him to deliver now.