Matthew Stafford: another overpaid Jamarcus Russell?

on 05 1, 2009

How does a 21 year old kid get a 6-year 78 million dollar contract (41.7 million being guaranteed) without ever throwing an NFL pass? That is the contract former Georgia QB Matthew Stafford just received from the Detroit Lions when they drafted him number 1 overall. To say this is stupid is an understatement. The 41.7 million dollar guaranteed contract is the highest in NFL HISTORY and it went to a rookie, you have got to be kidding. The last 4 years, the first QB taken in the draft has received at least 29 million guaranteed. Two of those quarterbacks have been Jamarcus Russell and Vince Young. In my opinion, both have been colossal busts in the NFL. Everyone was in a trance over Russell being able to throw 50 yards from his knees and Vince Young single handily beating the Trojans in the National Championship game. No one dug deeper to see that Russell couldn’t throw a basic 5 yard slant or that Vince Young couldn’t throw whatsoever. NFL franchises seem to try at any cost to grab the next “franchise QB,” but don’t seem to realize if they miss, their money is flushed down the toilet.

Now we do not know if Stafford will be the next multi-million dollar quarterback who should be the 3rd stringer, or if he will be like a Matt Ryan who led his team to the playoffs. But to a pay a kid that much money not knowing the future is embarrassing and will only get worse in the near future. Picking a QB in the draft is at best a coin flip and there is no team that can always get it right, so to put all your chips on one guy for the next 6 years is just stupid.

With all that said, Stafford will fail and his accuracy will be the reason why. No NFL QB gets by with just a strong arm; even Brett Favre was accurate at times. He will be thrown into the mix way too early and the Lions are still a horrible football team. If they could somehow keep him out for the next year and a half to let him develop I believe he could come into is own, but we all know that will not happen. I guarantee by the 4th game he will be playing and he will fail. So Detroit fans get ready for another decade of horrible football.

If the NFL does not have a rookie salary cap soon, this will get out of control and no teams will want to pick in the top ten.

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