Chicago Bears: Five NFC North stars to watch out for
2. Matthew Stafford
After a few injury-plagued early years, Stafford truly has become the franchise quarterback everyone in Detroit hoped he would be. And now, he’s actually played himself into conversations for who belongs in the top-ten quarterbacks in the league.
All the Detroit jokes aside, you can’t deny how good Stafford has become. And you also can’t ignore how big an obstacle a prime Matthew Stafford could be for the Chicago Bears going forward.
Sure, Stafford’s career numbers don’t suggest the kind of dominance of a certain other prominent NFC North quarterback. In fact, he struggled against the Bears last year in both games they played. Also, he doesn’t play defense, which consistently remains a problem for the Lions.
But he’s still won more than he’s lost against the Bears (8-6). And as rough as last year was for him against the Bears, he’s also thoroughly dominated them in the recent past as well. In 2015, he put up seven touchdowns against just one pick with an average rating of about 118. One would hope the Bears defense, led by Leonard Floyd, can make it harder for him in the future than that.
16 days until NFL season: Matthew Stafford led the Lions on 16 game-winning drives over the last 3 seasons, most in the NFL in that span. pic.twitter.com/ogtHM4Hne5
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 22, 2017
16 days until NFL season: Matthew Stafford led the Lions on 16 game-winning drives over the last 3 seasons, most in the NFL in that span. pic.twitter.com/ogtHM4Hne5
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 22, 2017
In terms of his overall impact on the division, no other player besides the next man on the list (guess who…) wields more influence than Stafford.