LA Rams QB Matthew Stafford – Consumer Report feature

The first thing any savvy NFL team will do after making a blockbuster trade is tout, trumpet, and proclaim all the virtues of the new incoming player. His drawbacks, shortcomings, and warts? Not so much. But we have to be honest with ourselves, and the LA Rams certainly have inherited risks with their latest headliner trade.

Considering the Rams have sent an uber-valuable mega-package of future gridiron assets to the Detroit Lions for their new quarterback Matthew Stafford, it’s only human nature to see an over-abundance of, well, fawning flattering homer-ism from the receiving team. The true reasons for making such a move can be cumbersome and complex. It’s better to splash highlights than detailed analysis.

And, by now, you’ve seen plenty of thumb’s ups (and a sprinkling of thumb’s downs) about the trade – it’s alternately either the move that put the Rams over the hump to have home-field advantage at So-Fi for the next Super Bowl or, the move that’s sealed the team’s fate due to trading away another pair of their valuable first-round draft picks.

I’m really not going to try to convince you either way.

But rather, just gonna’ pretend to put on my Consumer Reports correspondent’s hat for a moment, and you, Dear Reader, are gonna pretend you’re just over here looking to buy a used washing machine or a toaster. I’m here to tell you about all the standard features and the options of this model over the other wares on the shelf:
What are its capabilities?
How has this model performed in the past?
Does it have any extra bells and whistles?
Any drawbacks?
What do previous buyers of this product have to say?

So many questions. Well, let’s dig in.