Matthew Stafford's Yards - What Do They Mean?

      There is always a debate about whether Stafford is a great QB or a good QB or just and average QB. One stat that is always mentioned is the yards he puts up. Those who dont like him will point out how he has a ton of attempts to get him those yards. I decided to look at his yardage and see just what it does say about him.
     Stafford's two biggest seasons had passing yards of 5,038 & 4,967 which rank as the 9th and 10th most yards in a single season ever. I know, you get the yards if you get enough attempts right? Completely right, but now consider what you are actually saying. On a Lions team that has not had a good running game since before the turn of the century, when every defense you play knows you are passing, you get one of the top 10 most yards in a season ever? When defensive linemen know you will be passing and have no fear of the run game beating them, they are pinning back their ears and coming for the QB hard. When most of his career he has never had more than two good receivers and often only had one good one healthy. When most QBs in the NFL would fail miserably in the same situations, Stafford shells out 5,000 yards.
      Who are the other QBs with 5,000 yards in a season? Drew Brees (5 times), Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Dan Marino. Strange that as often as average to decent QBs have played on bad teams that needed to pass a lot, no average quarterbacks have reached 5,000 yards before. Oh, and just a tidbit of info to chew on. In 7 of the top 10 seasons in yards ever, the QB was at least 29 years old. The three who were younger? Marino was 22, Stafford was 23 and Stafford was 24.
      In the last six years, Stafford's lowest yard total is 4,257.  In the last 6 seasons, this is how many times the top QBs threw for 4000+ yards.
(6) Stafford
(6) Brees
(6) Ryan
(5) Brady
(5) Rivers
(4) E.Manning
(4) A.Rodgers
(4) Palmer

      Now consider one other thing. What is one of the most common complaints about Caldwell and Cooter as the Lions coaches? Too conservative. Whene you consider that the Lions scheme is supposed to be a conservative scheme, with a ton of short passes and too many runs on first downs. And to think Stafford is still throwing for over 4,000 yards when the defenses know we cannot run? Any way you want to try and spin it, that is truly impressive.
     Overall, Stafford's yards are very impressive. In fact he is one of the very best since his shoulder surgery before the 2011 season. When you can point out how average QBs are throwing for over 4,000 yards every season when they dont have a run game to keep the defense honest, I will listen to arguments that maybe Stafford isn't a great QB, but when he continues to match up to the great QBs, and even do better than some of them,I have to keep placing him as a great QB as well.