In 2011, Matthew Stafford joined Tom Brady as the third and fourth quarterbacks of all time to throw for 5,000 yards in a single season, alongside Dan Marino (1984) and Drew Brees (2008). Since then, they've been joined by Peyton Manning (2013), Ben Roethlisberger (2018), Patrick Mahomes (2018) and Jameis Winston (2019).
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But in 2021, he might become the first quarterback to establish a new group of passing greatness: the 6,000-yard club. In the 17-game season, some records will likely be broken, and Peter King of NBC Sports is looking at Stafford as a good option to do so.
"A healthy Stafford, in a 17-game season and with that Rams backfield, could be the first quarterback to throw for 6,000 yards in a year," King said when predicting that Stafford would win the MVP award.
I went another direction with my prediction of which quarterback would be most likely to shatter passing records in the new 17-game format, but it's not like King doesn't have a good point. After all, Stafford now has two legitimate wideouts — Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp — and a good pass-catching tight end in Tyler Higbee that could be seen as an improvement over some of his pass-catching corps throughout his career with the Lions. We also can't forget about DeSean Jackson, Van Jefferson and Tutu Atwell, giving Stafford a plethora of weapons. The Rams also lost Cam Akers, meaning the idea of the ground game being the focal point may have lost a little bit of steam.
Most importantly, however, he has the innovative Sean McVay running the offense. In two of his four years as the head coach of the Rams, he's led the team to a top-five passing offense in terms of total yards. In his final year as the offensive coordinator in Washington, McVay produced the second most passing yards in the whole league. His worst finish came last year, as the No. 13 passing offense, and this was when Jared Goff performed as the league's 22nd best quarterback (per Pro Football Reference).
The biggest thing working against Stafford in his quest for 6,000 yards — or perhaps it's better to label this as King's quest to see his bold prediction fulfilled — may be the Rams' dominant defense, changing the game script and allowing the running game to take over. Either way, Stafford has a strong case for the MVP given the likelihood that the Rams can return to the top of the NFC and produce both a prolific offensive and defensive season.
If you're up for betting, Stafford's MVP odds are currently at +2000 on BetMGM, behind Patrick Mahomes (+600), Aaron Rodgers (+1100), Josh Allen (+1400), Tom Brady (+1400), Dak Prescott (+1600) and Lamar Jackson (+1800) and tied with Russell Wilson. My guess is that King would advise you to put a nice little chunk of change on those odds and watch the magic happen in L.A.
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