Stafford most underhonored player in NFL history?

[TanksAndSpartans]

Does Stafford show up in Rupert's book? (Tangent alert - About a year ago or so I had gotten to a point where I had pretty much read the books on Chris Willis's list I wanted to read and had nothing football related to read. Now I'm back where I usually am with 3 or 4 books I can't seem to get to)..

[rhickok1109]

The only number that counts for a QB is points. It’s a team game and Stafford’s offences didn’t score enough points to elevate his teams in Detroit. Comparing Stafford to Brett Favre in any sense is a huge stretch, to say the least.

Yes, Favre's INTs were usually borne from his aggressiveness...trying to get the ball downfield to score points and win games. Stafford's INTs usually are panicked heaves forced by real or imagined pressure. Maybe that is an unfair characterization, but that's just what it seems to be.

Stafford has none of Favre's playmaking ability. It is a baseless comparison (as are most of the comparisons in this thread). The Ravens had given up 525 yards passing the week prior, and Stafford has 3 TOs and needs to pull one out of the fire in order to beat them. I'm guessing Stafford will still make the pro bowl this year, but he is going to have to continue to perform at this level for several more seasons and also make some noise in the postseason before he can even be considered a HOF QB, IMO. His resume at the moment is paper thin.

Favre's interceptions have been exaggerated. In his 19 seasons as a starter, his INT% was lower than the league average 11 times and his career INT% was lower than the league average over that 19-season period.

[racepug]

Favre's interceptions have been exaggerated. In his 19 seasons as a starter, his INT% was lower than the league average 11 times and his career INT% was lower than the league average over that 19-season period.

Then maybe it's more that some of his picks came at some really inopportune times.

[Brian wolf]

Favre could throw some bad interceptions in postseason games, especially the 1995/96, 2007/08, 2009/10 NFC Championship games and the 2001/02 and 2003/04 divisional playoffs but I still believe he was the best pure passer I ever saw.

He spoiled fans by playing so long when QBs and receivers could still get crunched. When he broke all the records, not many people at the time thought they could get challenged but once the rules started changing, while offensive pass interference and offensive holding started to get called less frequently, inflated statistics allowed other QBs to catch his numbers rather quickly. Now the chances of playing 20 years for any player, has greatly increased, so Big Ben in Pitts might want to wait on hanging them up but its time.

[JameisLoseston]

Does Stafford show up in Rupert's book? (Tangent alert - About a year ago or so I had gotten to a point where I had pretty much read the books on Chris Willis's list I wanted to read and had nothing football related to read. Now I'm back where I usually am with 3 or 4 books I can't seem to get to).

He's 96th on Rupert's NPR board as of 2018, just a point or two above the 66.7 baseline.

rhickok1109 wrote:
Favre's interceptions have been exaggerated. In his 19 seasons as a starter, his INT% was lower than the league average 11 times and his career INT% was lower than the league average over that 19-season period.

This is the kind of analysis I come here for. It's easy to look at Favre's 336 picks and think, "whoa!". But this puts that raw number in a completely different perspective, and negates any notion that Favre was a careless passer or excessively aggressive. He was the gunslinger and avoiding turnovers wasn't the focus of his game, but the main reason he accumulated so many is because of how long he played.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

I am a huge Brett Favre fan -- one of my top 5 favorite players ever. He made several of the best plays I've ever seen. He also made a few of the dumbest. That's just the way he was -- my saying was, "Live by the Favre, die by the Favre."

He made some very memorable mistakes, like the int in overtime in the playoff vs. Philadelphia in (I think) the 4th and 26 game. In his first few years, he didn't always throw the ball away out of bounds, he would chuck it up there and try to overthrow everybody on the field. He probably threw 5-10 ints to safeties chasing down the ball trying to do that. It's funny to think about now. He also was so ramped up for games early in his career that he sometimes overthrew his receivers for the first 20 minutes of games.

Brett reminded me so much of John Elway. Few players play with that kind of fervor.

Stafford is a different type of player and clearly not at the level of those two. I don't know if stats back me up, but from what I have seen of Stafford over the years is that he's better than several above-average quarterbacks. Given the choice, I'd pick him over Rivers, Ryan, Dalton....to me, Stafford's seemed a bit on the higher end of the B-level tier.

[rhickok1109]

For what it's worth, PFF has never ranked Stafford higher than 7th (twice) and they've ranked him as low as 21st (also twice). They have him ranked 12th in 2021.

[JameisLoseston]

Given the choice, I'd pick him over Rivers, Ryan, Dalton....to me, Stafford's seemed a bit on the higher end of the B-level tier.

Dalton is the only one of those four I'd call a "B" quarterback. The rest are at least HOVG locks.

[racepug]

but I still believe he was the best pure passer I ever saw.

Wow. Seriously? I think that Aaron Rodgers is by far a better passer AND he's much more careful with the ball than Brett Favre ever was. (Matter of fact in a forum on a different website I was communicating with a Packers fan and he messaged straight up that he didn't rate Brett Favre as the best QB in Packers history)

[Brian wolf]

Rodgers is a great thrower and does protect the ball better than Favre and he should.
He learned a lot from watching Brett and doesn't force the ball or take as many chances but the game is different today in my opinion. Rodgers, like Brady, has taken full advantage of the rule changes and emphasis on protecting --even coddling-- QBs and receivers compared to the past. Offensive football gets a lot more leeway, while officials keep taking more of the aggressiveness away from defenses, where the players on that side have to think more rather than react. Offensive holding and offensive pass interference are getting called way less than in the past, which also frustrates many players trying to do their jobs. When Favre played, QBs could still get killed. Today, they can wear dresses during games.

Rodger's career is similar to Steve Young, in that both backed up great players, learned from them and then took over teams with a winning culture already in place. Favre, like Montana, had to learn and thrive in a system while turning bad teams into good, then great ones. All these guys could throw the ball, now its time for Rodgers to join the ranks of the great winners and get his second team championship. He will already be the highest rated thrower when he retires. Turnovers or not, Favre still went to back-to-back Super Bowls.

Its funny that Favre won with having Reggie White as a teammate, while Rodgers had Charles Woodson on defense.
Neither QB could lead their team to the SB, once those great players retired ...