It will be the second time in history that two former first picks will meet in the Super Bowl on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals) and Matthew Stafford (Los Angeles Rams) will do so six years after Cam Newton and Peyton Manning met in the Finals when the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers.
Posted at 4:00 p.m.
It was after enduring their miserable 0-16 season in 2008 that the Detroit Lions were able to draft Stafford in the 2009 auction. 2020 draft. Less than two years ago, that is to say…
A year before the 2009 draft, Stafford was already considered a safe bet. When he was quarterback for the University of Georgia Bulldogs, he was predicted to be the first prospect drafted thanks to a cannon arm.
The story was very different in Burrow’s case. Tired of being a reserve with the Ohio State Buckeyes, he changed universities and joined the LSU Tigers in 2018. A transfer that allowed him to become a starting quarterback, he who had been the reserve from Dwayne Haskins to Columbus. Note that Haskins shone in the NCAA.
But even before the start of his final season with the Tigers in the summer of 2019, Burrow was considered a future third- or fourth-round pick. He wasn’t even part of the conversation when it came to which quarterbacks would be the first picks the following spring, unlike Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert, who ended up being the 5and and 6and prospects drafted in 2020.
Thanks to a dream season in 2019, which ended with a national championship for the Tigers and the Heisman Trophy for Burrow, the rise of the young quarterback has been dizzying. So much so that the Dolphins reportedly offered three first-round picks to the Bengals to move from fifth to first in the draft. They would have suffered a categorical refusal from the Bengals.
PHOTO GARY A. VASQUEZ, USA TODAY SPORTS
Joe Burrow at Media Day
Talented and calm, a good athlete and a natural leader, Burrow seems to have no weaknesses. He was able to accomplish what Stafford never was able to do in 12 years with the Lions. He pulled his team out of the NFL’s underworld and took it to the Super Bowl.
To be fair, Stafford improved the Lions. They made the playoffs in 2011, 2014 and 2016, but lost their opener all three times. And aside from Calvin Johnson, it certainly can’t be said that Stafford got to play with a lot of top players at Michigan. The mediocrity of the Lions, let’s be polite, even convinced Johnson and Barry Sanders, in another era, to take hasty retirements.
Doubly expensive
The Rams themselves bet that the problem in Detroit was not Stafford, but the Lions as a whole. It’s a huge price they’ve agreed to pay to get Stafford out of car town.
On Jan. 31 of last year, the Rams traded their 2022 and 2023 top picks, their 2021 third pick and Jared Goff to the Lions for Stafford. What you need to know is that in order to be able to pick Goff first overall in the 2016 draft, the Rams traded their first picks from 2016 and 2017, two second-round picks and one third-round pick to the Titans of Tennessee. By the way, one of two second-round picks allowed the Titans to draft Derrick Henry…
When you put it all together, here’s what the Rams ultimately had to pay for Stafford: four first-round picks, two second-round picks and two third-round picks. A huge prize indeed!
But so far, GM Les Snead, head coach Sean McVay and the Rams would tell you it was worth it. The goal was to play the Super Bowl in front of their fans at SoFi Stadium and that mission was accomplished. If the Rams win the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in their history, there will be no one left to criticize them for paying too much for Stafford.
A “real” fight
We understand that Stafford will be the player on whom there will be the most pressure on Sunday evening. But it probably won’t hurt him at all. The adversity he went through with the Lions and the enormous pressure of having to win with the Rams pales in comparison to the ordeal Stafford and his family have had to go through.
Stafford’s wife, Kelly, was diagnosed with brain cancer in April 2019. The procedure to remove the tumor took 12 hours. At that time, the couple had three daughters, 3-year-old twins and an 8-month-old baby…
Fortunately, the procedure was a success and Kelly Stafford is healthy. The couple even welcomed a fourth daughter in July 2020.
PHOTO JED JACOBSOHN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Matthew Stafford and his wife, Kelly Hall, after the Rams win the National Conference Finals
It’s a touching moment that the 32-year-old woman experienced when she went to find her lover on the field after the Rams’ victory in the National Conference Final against the San Francisco 49ers, there. at two weeks. Kelly Stafford has often come to the defense of her husband when she felt that he had been unjustly criticized since the start of his career. There was something magical about their embrace after the win over San Francisco.
Not a “kid kodak”
Stafford has been very good since the start of the playoffs. Everyone is talking about Burrow, the new darling of the NFL, which is completely normal. He is only playing his second season in the NFL and seems destined to fill some of the void caused by the recent retirements of Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees.
Still, Stafford’s stats have been better than Burrow’s in the first three rounds of playoffs. Stafford completed 72% of his passes (72 for 100) for 905 yards, 6 touchdowns and 1 interception. He was the victim of 5 sacks and his efficiency coefficient is 115.6. Burrow completed 68.8 percent of his passes (75 for 109) for 842 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He was the victim of 12 sacks and his efficiency coefficient is 96.2.
Despite his near-flawless play over the past month, Stafford isn’t getting much publicity. Even in his own team, players like Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr. are talked about more than him.
We could even add 40-year-old tackle Andrew Whitworth to this group, who won the prestigious Walter Payton Award on Thursday night. This honor is given to the player who has been the most socially involved and has had the greatest impact off the pitch. It’s amazing what Whitworth accomplishes. A great man. End of parenthesis.
In short, Stafford shines, but we don’t talk about it much. Note that this surely suits his business perfectly. Not too much of the type to look for the kodak, that one.
As always, quarterback play will be one of the determining factors on Sunday night. Burrow is excellent and will be for a long time. But at the moment the gap between Stafford and him is not that big. If Burrow is part of the top 5 of the league, Stafford is definitely part of the top 10 and is at the height of his career. Nice duel in perspective.