Matt Stafford did somethin no other QB has done

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2016/matthew-staffords-obscure-record
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…The record: Stafford is the first quarterback in NFL history to complete at least 60 percent of his passes in all 16 games in a season.

Shocked? Amused? Perplexed?…

…With or without Cooter, Stafford threw the shortest passes in the league. His average pass traveled 6.6 yards beyond the line of scrimmage — even Alex Smith was at 6.8. The 2015 league average was 8.5 yards, which includes throws negated by defensive pass interference penalties. Once Cooter took over for Joe Lombardi, Stafford’s passes only got shorter, and he attacked the sticks less aggressively as his ALEX went down too. The receivers helped with few drops, but this record was built on limiting the vertical threat in this offense. Calvin Johnson averaged a career-low 13.8 yards per reception. Golden Tate, who was so dynamic in his 2014 debut with the team, saw his average reception drop from 13.4 yards to a career-low 9.0 yards. Stafford was 130-of-165 (78.8 percent) on passes thrown to running backs. The rest of the NFL completed 73.9 percent of its passes to running backs, so they are generally high-percentage plays. Only Rivers (172) threw more passes to running backs than Stafford did. According to ESPN charting, Stafford completed 75-of-89 screen passes (84.3 percent) in 2015.

While easy throws were so prevalent in this offense, they alone cannot explain the lack of an off day from Stafford in 2015. Breaking down each game helps; Stafford never topped an average of 8.81 air yards in any of the 16 games. In fact, the 8.81-yard game was the last before Cooter took over. I charted Stafford’s average air yards over his last 80 regular-season starts (all since 2011) and found that his average has been trending downward, and it is unusual for him not to go above 9.0 air yards per attempt….

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…no quarterback has ever averaged 7.0 yards per attempt or had a passer rating of 85.0 or better in all 16 games of a season. The 16-game benchmarks instead belong to Kurt Warner (at least 6.87 YPA in 2001) and Philip Rivers (at least an 84.5 passer rating in 2009). Surprisingly, Rivers (2009 and 2013) and Aaron Rodgers (2012) are the only quarterbacks to have at least an 80.0 passer rating in all 16 games….