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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Cameron DaSilva

Matthew Stafford didn’t fumble all season, which is incredibly rare for a starting QB

Matthew Stafford came into the 2023 season with 79 career fumbles. He fumbled it at least twice in each of his first 14 seasons in the NFL, with career-highs of 12 in 2013 and 2017.

Fumbles don’t get as much attention as interceptions do for quarterbacks, but they can be just as costly as picks.

Incredibly, Stafford went the entire 2023 regular season without fumbling a single time. Of the 32 quarterbacks who started at least eight games, Stafford was the only one who didn’t fumble.

And we’re not talking about lost fumbles. This is just fumbling it at all, even if they were recovered by the offense. Stafford didn’t fumble it once all season.

The other 31 quarterbacks with at least eight starts fumbled it multiple times each. Josh Dobbs led the NFL with 14 fumbles, to put Stafford’s accomplishment into perspective.

Historically, this was a rare feat by the veteran quarterback. Going back to 1950, only six other quarterbacks with at least 10 starts have gone the entire season without a fumble. Only two of those players started at least 12 games: Stafford and Daryle Lamonica in 1970.

Query Results Table
Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass
Rk Player Fmb Att GS Season Age Team G GS Cmp Att Inc Cmp% Yds TD Int
1 Matthew Stafford 0 521 15 2023 35 LAR 15 15 326 521 195 62.6 3965 24 11
2 Drew Brees 0 378 11 2019 40 NOR 11 11 281 378 97 74.3 2979 27 4
3 Joey Harrington 0 348 10 2007 29 ATL 12 10 215 348 133 61.8 2215 7 8
4 Daryle Lamonica 0 356 14 1970 29 OAK 14 14 179 356 177 50.3 2516 22 15
5 Tom Flores 0 269 11 1965 28 OAK 14 11 122 269 147 45.4 1593 14 11
6 Y.A. Tittle 0 285 10 1961 35 NYG 13 10 163 285 122 57.2 2272 17 12
7 Y.A. Tittle 0 279 11 1957 31 SFO 12 11 176 279 103 63.1 2157 13 15
Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 1/9/2024.

The last player to start at least 10 games and have no fumbles was Drew Brees in 2019. Before that, it was Joey Harrington in 2007. From 1971-2006, not a single quarterback started at least 10 games and had zero fumbles.

The only quarterback to accomplish this twice was Y.A. Tittle in 1957 and 1961, however, Stafford’s 15 starts are the most of any quarterback to go the entire season without fumbling it, so that puts him in a class of his own.

Stafford took great care of the football all year and hopefully that’ll continue into the playoffs when ball security will be essential.

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