Can Matthew Stafford have an MVP season in 2018?

Quarterback Matthew Stafford has been at the helm of the Detroit Lions for a decade now, and he may be due for his best season yet.

The word ‘elite’ gets thrown around with quarterbacks nonstop these days, and one of the gunslingers who’s name is always mentioned in the elite debate is Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions.

In his fifth annual NFL QB Tiers, ESPN’s Mike Sando pulled 50 NFL executives, who collectively placed Stafford in the second tier, with quarterbacks such as Russell Wilson of the Seahawks and Philip Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers. The trio each earned 15 more votes for Tier 1 than they earned the previous year, tying for first in the respective category.

While Stafford has drastically improved in the past couple years, he is still not considered a top-5 quarterback league-wide. The only quarterbacks to make Tier 1-Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger-are all surefire Hall-of-Famers who each have many playoff wins and super bowl rings to show for their hard work.

Whenever a talking head is arguing against Stafford being an elite quarterback, playoff wins (or lack thereof) are always brought up to tear him down. Despite very good passing statistics and a knack for comebacks, Stafford is widely considered the best quarterback in the league who has yet to win a playoff game.

Despite his lack of playoff success, at the rate Stafford is going, he has the stats to make it to Canton one day. With 34,749 career passing yards, Stafford is almost halfway to Peyton Manning‘s NFL record mark (71,940) and already has more passing yards than all but nine of the 26 quarterbacks enshrined in Canton.

In order to get to the Hall of Fame one day, Stafford will need to get some more playoff wins, as well as a few more pro bowl apperances (he only has one appearance as an alternate). Of all the enshrined quarterbacks, only one (Bob Waterfield, who played in a different era in the 1940s) has fewer than three pro bowl appearances, so he’ll need a few more elite years to hit that mark.

Although the road to Canton is a long one, a great season in 2018 can push Stafford farther down that road. Despite not having great stats in Detroit’s third preseason game against Tampa Bay (9-18, 113 yards, only responsible for six points), Stafford feels better than ever and is ready to get the season started on a high note.

Here’s what Stafford told Kyle Meinke of MLive.

"“I felt pretty good out there. I felt like I was seeing [the field] well. Obviously every time I go play, I want one or two back, and today was no different. I was able to extend some plays and get some big ones.”"

A case could be made that Stafford has never really been a part of a good team. Although he has made the playoffs three times, only one of those teams (2014) had a top-5 teams and valuable skill position players which put them in a position for success.

In nine years of playing for a fairly average football team, three playoff appearances, a pro bowl appearance and countless fourth quarter comebacks are rather impressive, as former Lions backup Dan Orlovsky argued to Michael Rothstein of ESPN:

"“You can’t win playoff games unless you’re part of really good teams,” said Orlovsky. “And for him to still continue to play at a high level when he hasn’t been a part of a bunch of really good teams, and maybe some people would make an argument any really good team, speaks volumes to how good of a player he truly is.”"

With improvement to the defense this season and a top-tier receiving corp returning, the pieces are in place for the Lions to make a run similar to their 2014 season. Even though the team is improving around him, it’s safe to say this team’s success still revolves around Stafford, and they need him to play well to compete on a playoff level.

With another year under offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter’s tutelage, it’s not crazy to say that 2018 could be Matthew Stafford’s best season yet. If he can manage to lead the Lions to 11-13 wins, a playoff berth and an NFC North title, his name has to be put into the MVP conversation.