from PFF: Ranking the most productive 2020 NFL rookie draft classes 1-32

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-most-productive-2020-rookie-draft-classes

11. Los Angeles Rams

Why they’re ranked here: Despite the Rams having nine picks in the 2020 draft, their rookies played the fifth-fewest combined snaps among NFL teams. The group logged just over 1,400 total snaps in the regular season. And over half of those snaps played came courtesy of sixth-round safety Jordan Fuller, who generated twice as much PFF WAR as the rest of Los Angeles’ rookie class combined.

How their top pick fared: Cam Akers, the 52nd overall pick, had his two best games of the season from a grading standpoint in the playoffs. Against Seattle in the wild-card round and Green Bay in the divisional round, Akers earned rushing grades of 72.7 and 88.1, respectively. Including those postseason games, he finished with a 77.6 rushing grade that ranked 22nd out of 60 qualifying running backs. That’s not a bad mark, but he still didn’t generate a significant amount of value for the Rams, especially considering where he was drafted.

Best value pick: Los Angeles grabbed Ohio State safety Fuller with the 199th pick, and he ended up playing more and better than any of the Rams’ other first-year players. Fuller logged over 700 snaps and ended up finishing as the 16th-most-valuable rookie of the 2020 season, per PFF WAR.

ROUND/PICK NAME POS COLLEGE
2/52 Cam Akers RB Florida State
2/57 Van Jefferson WR Florida
3/84 Terrell Lewis OLB Alabama
3/104 Terrell Burgess S Utah
4/136 Brycen Hopkins TE Purdue
6/199 Jordan Fuller S Ohio State
7/234 Clay Johnston ILB Baylor
7/248 Sam Sloman K Miami (OH)
7/250 Tremayne Anchrum G Clemson

Highest passer rating under pressure:
1. Justin Herbert – 99.4
2. Matthew Stafford – 91.8
3. Russell Wilson – 88.2
4. Deshaun Watson – 87.7 pic.twitter.com/A8fDn652rs

— PFF (@PFF) February 1, 2021

Aaron Donald can really hit Goff next year 🤯🤯🤭🤭pic.twitter.com/jvRAfFOHBW

— RanGotBeats🐏🐏🐏 (@Ran_215beatz) February 1, 2021

Sean McVay dealing from Cabo, a call about Rodgers, & the Lions desire to end things right. @PSchrags on how the Stafford-Goff trade went down.

"Panthers offered a very handsome package but Lions went with the Rams deal. They wanted Goff & viewed him as a key piece to the deal." pic.twitter.com/67kauYR2Wl

— GMFB (@gmfb) February 1, 2021

AlbaNY_Ram

More about this: “2) Matt has never had a defense or a running game”

Detroit had a top 10 defense once in Stafford’s 12 year career. The Lions finished 11-5 that season.

The Lions have had a 100 yard rusher 11 times in his career. I can’t find the results for the last 2, but the first 9 times it happened the Lions were 8-1. https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/9iejpr/matthew_stafford_has_had_a_total_of_9_100yard/

edit: I looked up the other 2 games.

D’Andre swift got 116 yards against Jacksonville in week 6 this year and Detroit won 34-16.

And last year, week 4, Kerryon Johnson had 125 yards against KC but KC still won 34-30.

So 9-2 with a 100 yard rusher, 11-5 with a top 10 defense.

My thoughts on the Rams' handling of their football divorce with Jared Goff… and his reaction to joining the Lions… @nflnetwork @PatrickClaybon @JimTrotter_NFL pic.twitter.com/b6UaeOMudC

— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) January 31, 2021

Peter Schrager@PSchrags
I’ve spoken to multiple teams this morning who made calls TO the Rams in regards to Goff, too. This wasn’t some throw-in. The Lions wanted him. He had a market. Around NFL, Goff is regarded well. 25, multiple playoff wins, beat Brees and Wilson in their buildings in postseason.

QB Matthew Stafford in Sean McVay’s offense —

Pretty easy fit there…

Throw the in-breakers off play-action. Get to the edges on boot + the Hi-Lo reads in the middle of the field.

Would expect L.A. to throw more vertical shots with Stafford, too. @NFLMatchup #Rams pic.twitter.com/dZHXc3flgQ

— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) January 31, 2021

The embodiment of leaving everything on the field.

Matthew Stafford had one of the greatest mic’d up moments ever…
✊
pic.twitter.com/FKLrNZ4lRH

— Scott Turken (@Turk0219) January 31, 2021

Dan Orlovsky says Rams got a gem in Matthew Stafford

SAM FARMER

https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2021-01-31/dan-orlovsky-rams-matthew-stafford

The Rams gave up an arm and a leg to get a franchise quarterback.

And got the right arm of Matthew Stafford in return.

Wise move. That’s the opinion of Dan Orlovsky, at least, a retired quarterback who backed up Stafford in Detroit and spent a training camp with the Rams in Sean McVay’s first season.

Orlovsky, who now works at ESPN, is one of the best up-and-coming analysts in the business, a guy who spent 12 seasons in the NFL, playing for Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay and back to Detroit, before finishing with a stint at Rams camp.

He knows what the Rams are getting in Stafford, for whom they traded quarterback Jared Goff, and three draft picks — two firsts and a third.

“It’s absolutely perfect for Matthew, going to L.A.,” Orlovsky said Sunday, the morning after the trade. “Matthew should have been in this style of system for many years, it just didn’t happen. He is best when he gets to hold onto the ball for a little bit of time and uses his explosive arm to make incredible, wow throws. He’s a way better athlete than people think on the perimeters, even at his age.

“Fit-wise, it’s perfect for Matthew. It’s perfect for the Rams.”

Rams coach Sean McVay led his team to the Super Bowl with Jared Goff as his quarterback, but they failed to recapture the magic of the 2018 season.

One of the big differences Stafford will notice right away, Orlovsky said, is the Rams have a running game.

“Matthew in the last six seasons has averaged 89 yards rushing, his team,” he said. “The Rams averaged 126 last year. That’s huge. Matthew’s had a 100-yard back 11 times in 12 seasons. The Rams had a 100-yard back five times last season.

“Just that alone, you’re going to see life so much easier for a quarterback. It’s absolutely perfect.”

By Orlovsky’s appraisal, the Rams have a two-year window for their best chance to make a Super Bowl run, and are one move away from becoming the complete package. They need a receiver who can stretch the field, and he sees Detroit receiver Marvin Jones as an ideal fit. Jones, who caught nine touchdown passes in three of the last four seasons, is due to become a free agent this spring.

“If I were them, I’d go sign Marvin,” Orlovsky said. “I think it makes a ton of sense. Matthew and he have a great relationship. They obviously have a great rapport on the field. I think Marvin Jones would be that person.”

As first impressions go, the most striking aspect of Stafford is his accuracy and ability to throw all the required passes.

“The arm is anything you could ever cross your fingers and hope for when it comes to a quarterback’s ability to make throws,” Orlovsky said. “Can you throw the ball 65-plus yards down the field? Absolutely. Can you throw the ball 24 yards on an absolute rope between defenders? Yes. Can you throw the ball up over a defender but get it down before somebody closing comes? Yes. Can you drop it down sidearm and be accurate because you need to? Absolutely. Can you throw on the run? Yes.

“Everything that you could want is in the right shoulder.”

But Orlovsky said Stafford was even more impressive as a teammate.

“One of the best people I’ve ever met. Legit,” he said. “That’s the thing that gets lost with him a lot. He’s an incredible person with this great heart, an absolute savage competitor.

“I was talking to a coach yesterday who is in on the quarterback market and was asking about him. I said, ‘His greatest quality is he can be two people at once. He knows he’s the guy. He knows he’s The Man. He has this aura about him that 100% knows he’s The Man. And at the same time, he has a great ability to just be a guy. Like just one of the guys.’

“I think there’s quarterbacks that can get their teammates to walk 90 out of 100 steps on the journey with them. Maybe 95 out of 100. His teammates will walk 100 out of 100 for him.”

Hram wrote:

Their mistake was extending Goff two years ago when they likely figured he would continue progressing. Well, he didn’t continue progressing. The next question is what to do with that sunk cost.

I seldom agree with those arguments. Goff had 4 bad games in 2020. If you go back to 2010 and looked at Stafford in his 5th year, he had 4 bad games too (using this measurement: in 2010 a qb rating of under 70 = a bad game).

So did Goff stop progressing or did some people just get unrealistic about qb progress?

I think McVay lost patience with Goff because it’s McVay’s nature to lose patience, not because of anything inherent to Goff.

But none of this makes me anti-Stafford. Now that he’s a Ram I will be curious to see him play.

…

nittany ram wrote:

But in the end I guess I trust McVay to know what he needs to make his offense perform the way he wants it to.

But that might also mean we CAN’T trust McVay to make the most of the talent he does have instead of shoving players into square holes.

Aaron Rodgers on Matt Stafford pic.twitter.com/sH5xPqPP3h

— HoldenCantor (@HoldenCantor) January 31, 2021

from 2020 Quarterback Tiers: 50 coaches and evaluators rank the NFL starters

Mike Sando Jul 27, 2020

https://theathletic.com/1945894/2020/07/27/2020-quarterback-tiers-50-coaches-and-evaluators-rank-the-nfl-starters/

TIER 2

A Tier 2 quarterback can carry his team sometimes but not as consistently. He can handle pure passing situations in doses and/or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game.

Tier 1 votes: 5 | Tier 2 votes: 38 | Tier 3 votes: 7 | 2019 Tier: 2

Stafford has played 11 seasons, owns no playoff victories, is coming off a broken back at age 32 and actually ranks two spots higher than he did last year, with a higher average tier vote. Voters liked what they saw from him last season.

“Two at the minimum,” an exec with NFC North ties said. “He was trending to a one this past year before he got hurt. If that joker was healthy, he would have been a one this year. I think he’s doing better and fits better within the scheme (under coordinator Darrell Bevell).”

Stafford set career single-season highs last season for yards per attempt (8.6), EPA per attempt (0.26), passer rating (106.0) and Total QBR (69.6). The Lions still went only 3-4-1 in his starts.

“Why he hasn’t won more, I always try to put my finger on that,” a coach with extensive experience against Stafford said. “We always talk about the culture. Pat Mahomes comes into the league and sits behind Alex Smith, and you have Andy Reid there. If you put Matt Stafford in that situation his rookie year and he gets to see, ‘OK, this is a Hall of Fame head coach, a quarterback that has been around the league that I can learn from and see his habits.’ I don’t know if Matt Stafford has ever been exposed to what it’s supposed to look like.”

This coach and four other voters placed Stafford in the top tier. Seven others showed their exasperation with the quarterback’s failure to drive team success by placing him in the third tier, despite his obvious talent.

“He is the opposite of Watson,” an evaluator who placed Stafford in the third tier said. “Same kind of thing with Derek Carr. Big, strong arm, a couple ‘wow’ passes here and there, but you’re not a consistent winner and your errors sometimes lose the game.”

Multiple coaches and execs from teams that have faced Stafford frequently said they fear facing him regardless.

“If you landed him in Pittsburgh or San Francisco, you’d see a winner,” a defensive coordinator said. “He is going down that Carson Palmer road. Carson never really won until he got late in his career, either. Carson could always throw the ball. He was a first-round pick. He got to Arizona and he made some things happen. Never quite won the big one, but he was still a damn good quarterback.”