Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had an impressive season. He passed for 5,038 yards, 41 touchdowns, led the Lions to 10 wins and the playoffs, and won the NFL's comeback player of the year award. Mighty fine for someone the missed a good portion of his first two seasons.Former St. Louis Ram and current NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk doesn't see Stafford's accomplishments as a big deal. Instead Faulk said he wasn't impressed and called passing for 5,000 yards is the norm in today's NFL.
"Throwing for 5,000 yards in the NFL right now is nothing," Faulk said. "I don't want to take anything away from it. As much as people throw the football now, you better have 5,000 (yards) if you have Calvin Johnson."
I'd like to ask what is Faulk smoking? The 5,000 yard plateau has only been done five times in NFL history and he calls it the norm? Drew Bledsoe had over 600 pass attempts on four occasions and never broke 5,000 yards. If you take away Calvin Johnson, Stafford still passes for about 3,500 yards and 25 touchdowns. Still not that bad.
While I don't know that Faulk has an agenda, it's clear he's been dining on paint chips. Stafford's season is absolutely impressive. It's not run of the mill, even in this pass-happy league.
I imagine this was a classic case of overstatement. From what I can gather, without having seen him make the statement, his point was that it's not a big deal to throw for 5,000 yards, as it was in Marino's day. If that's what he meant, fine. I totally agree. It used to be a big deal to rush for 1,000 yards; it's not a huge statement any longer.
On the other hand, if Faulk is trying to dismiss Stafford's season altogether as somehow being par for the course, he has no leg to stand on. Jon Kitna had Calvin Johnson at his disposal. Peyton Manning, Daunte Culpepper, Joe Montana and MANY others had outstanding receivers at their disposal. It's not to say Stafford is the greatest thing since sliced bread, rather that he had a fantastic season, regardless of era or weapons.
