LA Rams QB Matthew Stafford – Consumer Report feature

Accuracy, Pocket Presence, Leadership

Accuracy is a tough measurable to get a bead on because if you’re throwing check-down passes (ala Kirk “Captain Checkdown” Cousins) of 5-7 yards, your accuracy will look golden compared to the guy who’s passing for 12-15 yards more often.  (I wish there was a way to measure missed passes to wide-open receivers (cuz we could call that the Cam Newton quotient.)  Stafford’s career accuracy of 62.6 suffers from his early years. His peak accuracy of 67.2 percent is where you can expect him to perform in the Rams offense.

Pocket presence can mean a lot of things. But let’s start with release time.  For that, we turn to NextGenStats.com at the NFL.  Matthew Stafford’s release time is 2.65 seconds, tied for 15th in the NFL. The reason for his slower release time is that he tended to throw the ball 9.0 yards downfield, tied for sixth-longest in the NFL among quarterbacks. The only quarterback with a better pocket presence is the Buccaneers’ Tom Brady, who got rid of the ball in 2.57 seconds with an average of 9.3 yards per pass. That’s not only fast, but he also has an incredible way of looking one way and throwing another. You will love that about him.

Leadership is a difficult statistic to measure, but it does point rather squarely to comeback victories. In 2020, Stafford led the Detroit Lions to three comeback victories, good enough for third-place among NFL quarterbacks.  He also tied for third place with four game-winning drives in 2020. Suddenly the possibilities explode for the Rams.

The LA Rams will finally have the ability to make a huge stop on defense and actually have a chance now of winning the game with late-game heroics from the quarterback. I can talk at length about this one, but it will be more fun to watch the reactions on social media when it happens for the first time. Imagine how well that will pick up the defense, and the entire team?