I recall 2016 when the Lions won all of 9 games---and 8 of them were 4Q comebacks led by Stafford. Team seemed to react to his leadership. Still the single-season record btw. Overall he has 31 4Q comebacks, which ties him with John Elway for 7th best all-time.Brian wolf wrote:Thats my position. QBs are judged by throwing the football and executing the offense to score enough points to win ballgames. If a QB is inspiring or elevating the play of all of his teammates, usually the team will find a way to win. Stafford has never done that ... he is strictly a talented passer, though he has battled through injury as well. Some people believe he is a HOF QB. I dont but leading a team to a championship could at least alter his career more upward.
In fact, I often think of Elway when talk gets around to Stafford and what he has and hasn't done. For the first 12 or 15 years of Elway's career, I never really thought of him as a future HOFer. My impression of him was he was the guy who was QBing the Broncos in their latest Super Bowl blowout loss. I believe Denver lost 3 SB in a 4-year stretch. I remember those Super Bowl parties with my brothers and friends in the late '80s.....seems like by the 3Q we were already seated around the poker table and ignoring whatever was happening on the tube because Denver was so far out of it. It wasn't until Elway's last two seasons---when he was approaching 40---that he got those 2 SB rings. At that point I could see him pretty much as a slam-dunk HOFer.
Maybe that'll happen with Stafford. He's only 32. Again, I'm really interested in seeing how he reacts to having a whole new crew around him, a whole new environment (literally, moving from MI to CA).