Matthew Stafford wasn’t having a good season by his standards before suffering a neck injury that landed him on injured reserve. He had just 10 touchdown passes and eight interceptions, averaging just 231.9 yards per game – the third-lowest of his career.
However, he wasn’t solely to blame for the Rams’ issues despite going just 3-6 in his nine starts. He got very little help from his teammates, particularly an ever-changing offensive line that struggled to block opposing pass rushers.
In fact, when you take look at his context-adjusted efficiency, which factors in things like blocking, drops, receivers and strength of schedule, Stafford was making up for a lot of issues around him.
Take a look at this chart, which shows Stafford ranking eighth in context-adjusted EPA (expected points added) per play as opposed to his actual fifth-worst ranking.
Very preliminary here, but adding receiver adjustments causes some serious chaos. What have I done to my boy Jimmy!
I'll keep adjusting and adding stuff on this and publish again when the Week 15 tracking data is up pic.twitter.com/hEv61eeS0J
— Kevin Cole (@KevinCole___) December 16, 2022
Stafford had a lot of things working against him, from a lack of receiver talent behind Cooper Kupp to abysmal pass protection up front. This chart helps contextualize his season, as frustrating as it was.
