Matthew Stafford, of Detroit Lions fame, #1 overall pick, three year Georgia starter, and top high school QB in the class of 2006 (Highland Park, Texas) will be a bust. The NFC North has a new gunslinger in town... his cannon arm did wonderful things throwing into triple coverage during his SEC playing days. Now, for those of you that believe Georgia's porous line caused his struggles, come on. He was throwing to AJ Green (potential 1st round pick), Mohammed Massaquoi (now in the NFL) and had Knowshon Moreno as his halfback. In addition, he's supposed to be the BEST quarterback in college, you figure he could find his hot route receiver rather than force throws.
When breaking down some of his statistics, his interceptions did not decline enough from Freshman to Junior year (13 to 10) to provide any additional confidence that he won't be interception prone in the NFL. While his completion percentage did improve markedly over his college career, it was not mind blowing last year at 61.4%. I concede the fact that SEC defenses are known for speed and power but its not like its slowing down in the NFL. On top of all this, he has to go play for the Lions, a disaster of a sports franchise. In fact, it may be the worst business the family owns... and the owners are the Ford family.
When looking at whether he's a winner, he took a preseasion #1 team to the Capital One Bowl last year (yes he won, but who cares about the capital one bowl), beat an overmatched Hawaii team in the Sugar Bowl in 2008 and did not play in a bowl in 2007. In SEC play, he lost to Alabama (ok game) and Florida (stinker) last year. That said, he did beat Florida as a sophomore. Overall though, not exactly what I would define as a "big game" player.
Overall, Matthew Stafford has a wonderful skill set (so did Jim Druckenmiller and Jeff George) but I don't think he has the tbe football IQ to become an elite level QB. I'd like to see otherwise... as Stafford's arm and Calvin Johnson's receiving skills could be a wonderful thing to watch. It's not going to happen though.
No comments:
Post a Comment