Collinsworth: ‘I didn’t realize Matthew Stafford was that good’

The veteran broadcaster shared his surprising Stafford thoughts on Thursday Night Football

Veteran broadcaster, former NFL wide receiver, and the guy that not everybody realizes is responsible for why NBC shares PFF grades (because he bought the company) Cris Collinsworth shared his thoughts on new LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford during Thursday night’s opening game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys:

“I gotta be honest, I didn’t realize he was that good,” said Collinsworth.

With Collinsworth calling the Rams-Bears game on Sunday night, he had to finally do a deep dive on Stafford as a quarterback and that’s not something that he had to do many times when the veteran QB was with the Detroit Lions.

Though Stafford was a number one pick and a successful statistical player throughout his Lions career, Detroit rarely won enough games during his 12-year career for primetime broadcasting to put them on the schedule. That changed this year (Stafford even appeared as a special guest on the NFL’s schedule release announcement) with his move to LA and now the Rams will be featured on primetime at least five times.

That’s new for Stafford — and new for Collinsworth to see Stafford.

Collinsworth said that because he’s rarely had to call Lions games, he’s just never spent that much time researching Stafford, which changed this week. Collinsworth watched every Stafford throw from the 2020 season and he came away beyond impressed with the film, so get ready for him to gush at least that much during the broadcast on Sunday. At least, so long as Stafford and Sean McVay’s plans go off without a hitch.

Then Collinsworth will never forget just how good Matthew Stafford can be in the right system.

Read more: 4 Myths about Matthew Stafford

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