A lack of accuracy wasn’t the reason the Los Angeles Rams moved on from Jared Goff this offseason. He was plenty accurate when given time in the pocket, as we saw countless times in 2017 and 2018.
His reluctance to throw downfield and be aggressive when given the chance was frustrating for both Sean McVay and Rams fans, but that shouldn’t be the case with Matthew Stafford taking over.
Stafford is both accurate and aggressive, whether he’s throwing from a clean pocket or under duress. Hayden Winks of Underdog Fantasy used Sports Info Solutions’ data to construct a chart that shows a quarterback’s on-target rate and average depth of target when throwing from a clean pocket.
As the graph shows, Goff was one of the most accurate quarterbacks, but he and Alex Smith also had the lowest depths of target in the NFL. Stafford, on the other hand, was slightly less accurate but his average depth of target was about 3 full yards deeper than Goff’s.
A chart to show pure accuracy.
Removed pressure, play action, RPOs, and motion. Only in-pocket throws from a clean pocket per @SportsInfo_SIS. pic.twitter.com/Zx23S563eN
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) June 27, 2021
Stafford’s placement on the chart is in the range of (or better than) Ryan Tannehill, Baker Mayfield, Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Obviously, there are other factors that go into playing quarterback, and this chart excludes play action, RPOs and pre-snap motion, so it’s a somewhat smaller sample size.
But comparatively, Stafford’s combination of accuracy and depth of target from a clean pocket puts him in better company than Goff’s from last season and ranks him among the top quarterbacks. He even had a higher on-target rate than Patrick Mahomes, though his depth of target was lower.
