Fairly ranking Matthew Stafford and a decade of No. 1 picks
Many fans, including myself, responded to Easterling following his response to Stafford’s poor ranking in his article for USA Today’s Draftwire. Here is my response with a sentiment that I believe many would point out:
The list of players above Stafford are headed by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, who was ranked number one. The other players in order are: Newton, Andrew Luck, Jared Goff, Jadeveon Clowney, and Jameis Winston. Let’s recap the quality of the players ahead of Stafford.
Jameis Winston & “potential”
Winston, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, is primarily above Stafford due to his “potential”, a common theme if you care to read the short-sighted blurbs.
Looking at his stats, he has followed a similar sort of production, but to assume that he will eclipse Stafford’s production, solely because of his younger age, seems like a suspect theory.
After all, Stafford has reached passing milestones (like 25,000 yards passing) faster than anyone else, ever. That’s just one example of why, I believe, that people were not happy with the rankings. Easterling defended his higher ranking of Winston, and made a fair point to one Lions fan.
That's fair, but when compared to Stafford, it backs up my rankings.
— Luke Easterling (@LukeEasterling) June 18, 2018
Turnovers through their 1st 45 career starts:
Winston: 59
Stafford: 61 https://t.co/efWwfHpa9u
Given that Stafford’s best years were not his first three, I can see making this assertion. The caveat is that Stafford’s biggest statistical year was his third, and first fully healthy, year. Years three through five were also his most turnover-prone years, too. Luckily we have four others to see how Stafford would fix many of the issues that plagued his early career.
More from Easterling
On Twitter, Easterling clarified his position about Stafford, as well.
My argument is simple: I think we know who Stafford is, and the guys I ranked ahead of him have the potential to be better, based on a combination of what they've done up to this point & what they can become, since they're an average of 5 years younger than him. https://t.co/zA6ANpkrxp
— Luke Easterling (@LukeEasterling) June 18, 2018
To close out this part of my rebuttal, I’ll end by saying that his opinion about Stafford is giving a ton of deference to players who haven’t produced for very long, while ignoring the accomplishments of Stafford as an individual player.
Easterling is willing to write off Stafford’s production as “fantasy football” numbers while blaming him for Detroit’s lack of playoff success. No other quarterback seems to bear the burden of answering for not having a ring more. At the same time, no other player has produced as much as he has.
Now, onto what I believe to be a better, more fairer ranking of the last ten number one overall NFL draft picks.