Do you remember Rich Gannon? Dude spent his first 12 seasons working as a backup quarterback in Minnesota, Washington, and Kansas City, sometimes as a backup, sometimes as a disappointing starter.
Then, at the age of 33, he moved to California to help Jon Leading Gruden’s innovative offensive with the Oakland Raiders. Over the next four years, Gannon made four pro bowls, was two first-team all-pro, and once league MVP for an Oakland team that was an all-time contender.
It’s hard not to stick to Gannon’s career arc think if you watch Matthew Stafford, who spent the first 12 seasons of his career in Detroit with little support and even fewer accolades before moving to California at age 33 to co-direct Sean McVay’s innovative offensive with the Los Angeles Rams / p> This is particularly the case because Stafford emerged as the league’s best MVP candidate three weeks after his first season with the still undefeated Rams.
The 2009 number one overall defeated MVP contender Tom Brady and reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a 34-24 win at SoFi on Sunday in a pretty dominant way.
Since Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks dropped to 1-2 and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs lost their second game in a row on Sunday, Stafford should be considered the MVP of September and the Rams should be considered the new team to beat in the NFC.
Stafford stepped on Sunday as the third highest passer in the league with a score of 127.0, but he’s now at 129.8 on that metric after four touchdowns without interception against the hottest team in the league. That puts him just a few points behind Wilson, whose Seahawks have lost twice.
The Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders are level 3-0 with LA, but they weren’t quite the same tested and their quarterbacks were not playing at Stafford’s level.
Stafford was the only quarterback in the league to average more than 15 yards per degree before igniting an experienced and talented Buccaneers defense in front of a national crowd, in part because he only collected two sacks in two games (it’s now three out of three). He also finished third among qualified quarterbacks with 5.5 air yards completed per try before making multiple mega passes on Sunday, including a bombshell in a 75-yard third-down touchdown against DeSean Jackson.
His chemistry with Jackson and trusted veteran receiver Cooper Kupp is downright scary considering how new this arrangement is. If you watch him work with these guys and the other handguns, Tyler Higbee, Robert Woods, and Van Jefferson, you’d swear this core has been together for several seasons. Primo pass protection helps as Stafford was one of the least pressured passers-by in football, but the point is he has more support now than ever with the Lions.
Some credit goes to McVay who seemed to identify Stafford as a key figure to push his offensive over the top after the Rams failed to make the NFC championship game for the second year in a row in 2020.
Matthew Stafford has 9 Pass TD, along with Kurt Warner (1999) for most ever from a Rams QB in the first three games of a season.
That year, Warner MVP won and the Rams won the Super Bowl 👀 https://t.co/RTYkW3hrx2
Pro Football Talk reported back in February that McVay was « fixated » on Stafford. In June, he told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer that Stafford was « even better than advertised. » That same month, Jackson wasn’t bluffing when he told us the Rams’ new offensive was going to be scary, and in hindsight it is easy to see why McVay said he was in a better mood this off-season. We kept hearing that both McVay and Stafford were excited to work together, and now it all makes a lot of sense.
Stafford said back in March that his new environment has « re-energized » him, and that certainly hasn’t worn out. Those who expect it to be sometime soon should check out Gannon’s turn-of-the-century experience with the Raiders.
« You’re looking at Sean and Matthew, » Gannon told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times this spring. “I see some similarities with the time I went to Oakland with Jon Gruden. I was at a point where I was jumping around a bit and no one really … I mean, it’s different; he was the # 1 draft pick and I had to find my way around somehow. But he has a situation where he has a young head coach who is a really good game caller, very innovative and really involved in training that position. And there Jon was with me and we just get it. We never looked back. «
It is entirely possible that Stafford and the Rams are going down a similar path. They absolutely have the coaching, the guns and the experience and the balance brought about by the presence of stars Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey emerges on defense.
DraftKings had Stafford at 1800 to win MVP pre-season, that number had dropped to 1200 last week and I would expect it to drop well below 1000 with new ones this week Odds will be published. Soon any value of the futures odds for Stafford or the Rams will be gone. So if you’ve slept on Stafford and the Rams, it’s time to wake up.
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