The Matthew Stafford hype train has left the building, folks.
For some odd reason, Stafford looks better than ever this year with 1,914 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and four interceptions on a 68.1 completion percentage through seven games despite the departure of Calvin Johnson.
This has led plenty to whisper about an MVP award for the Georgia product. Others, such as ESPN’s Michael Rothstein, have gone on to dissect the financial side of things:
Andrew Luck, the league’s highest-paid quarterback, makes an average of $24.594 million off the contract extension he signed earlier this year, and Joe Flacco, the third-highest-paid quarterback in the league, is making an average of $21,133,333 per year off the contract extension he signed earlier in the year, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
With the salary cap likely to jump again, and with a premium on accomplished quarterbacks, Stafford could end up clearing both of those numbers.
This is worth mentioning because Stafford is a prime extension candidate this offseason. He has one year left on his deal and is only 28 years old, meaning he could post another decade of quality football. Detroit has something special here and would need to cough up whatever it takes to keep the franchise player in town.
How special? Here are a few recent notes about Stafford to digest:
Strongest arm in the NFL has been Aaron Rodgers for me for quite some time, but Matthew Stafford's looks better this season.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) October 27, 2016
My former neighbor, Matthew Stafford, has 27,890 passing yards, most by any player in his first 100 career games.
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) October 24, 2016
Mr. Clutch? Matthew Stafford has 5 game-winning TD passes in final :30 of 4th Qtr – most by any QB since 1970 merger, via @EliasSports
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) October 24, 2016
Granted, Stafford will set the new bar and someone else will eventually leap over it.
Given all of the above, though, it’s not hard to see why the Lions will back up a dump truck of cash to Stafford’s house—more than anyone else in history has received—and not think twice about it.
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