Probably the biggest knock you will hear against Stafford is that he is incapable of beating playoff teams. Stafford's winning percentage (5 and 42 or 10.64%) against playoff teams is undeniably atrocious. However, winning percentage is a team statistic, and while the QB is the leader of the team and rightfully bears the majority of the responsibility for this statistic, it cannot be attributed solely to the QB. This is especially true when the QB plays on a bad, or in Stafford's case a historically bad, team.

Because of the aforementioned reasons it would be unfair to compare Stafford's statistics against playoff teams to those of other QBs. After all those other QBs may have had incredible wide receivers/running backs/offensive lineman bolstering their offensive statistics, or an elite defense bolstering their winning percentage.

Instead I will compare Stafford to Stafford. That is, how much do Stafford's statistics suffer as a percentage when he plays a playoff team as compared to how much do other QBs statistics suffer when they play a playoff team. This levels the playing field.

For purposes of this article playoff team means a team that made the playoffs in the respective year that the statistics were compiled, including playoff games in that year.

For this research I used all current starting QBs that have at least 75 NFL starts. There are 16 QBs in that group: Sam Bradford, Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Carson Palmer, Drew Brees, Alex Smith, Philip Rivers, and Matthew Stafford.

I focused on six statistics: Winning percentage, Completion percentage, Yards/game, TD/game, INT/game, and QB Rating.

Winning Percentage:

Player Career Win Pct Playoff Win Pct Win Pct Increase/Decrease Russell Wilson 70.89% 66.67% -4.22% Tom Brady 77.87% 67.29% -10.58% Ben Roethlisberger 67.21% 55.56% -11.66% Aaron Rodgers 66.67% 53.85% -12.82% Sam Bradford 41.56% 28.05% -13.51% Joe Flacco 60.14% 45.59% -14.56% Drew Brees 56.47% 41.30% -15.16% Carson Palmer 51.45% 35.00% -16.45% Eli Manning 54.27% 37.08% -17.19% Cam Newton 56.04% 38.16% -17.89% Philip Rivers 55.11% 33.33% -21.78% Matt Ryan 59.86% 37.50% -22.36% Alex Smith 58.52% 35.00% -23.52% Jay Cutler 48.92% 24.19% -24.73% Andy Dalton 61.54% 35.53% -26.01% Matthew Stafford 46.79% 10.64% -36.15%

Every QBs statistics suffer here. Nobody has a better winning percentage against playoff teams, which makes a lot of sense. Somewhat surprisingly near the top of the list is Sam Bradford, although some of this can be attributed to a lower career winning percentage to start. Stafford's career winning percentage is also relatively low, however his decline in winning percentage when playing playoff teams is far and a way the biggest decrease at 36.15%.

Completion Percentage

Player Career Comp % Playoff Tm Comp % Cmp % Increase/Decrease Eli Manning 59.66% 64.92% 5.25% Sam Bradford 62.34% 63.15% 0.81% Aaron Rodgers 65.15% 65.25% 0.10% Tom Brady 63.76% 63.78% 0.02% Andy Dalton 62.75% 61.98% -0.77% Ben Roethlisberger 64.13% 62.97% -1.15% Cam Newton 58.40% 57.23% -1.18% Alex Smith 61.73% 60.41% -1.32% Joe Flacco 61.47% 60.12% -1.35% Carson Palmer 62.53% 61.15% -1.38% Matt Ryan 64.93% 63.44% -1.49% Jay Cutler 61.95% 60.31% -1.64% Philip Rivers 64.41% 62.67% -1.74% Matthew Stafford 61.47% 59.50% -1.97% Drew Brees 66.64% 64.33% -2.30% Russell Wilson 64.71% 62.27% -2.44%

Here, there are some players that actually improve when playing playoff teams. Eli Manning, Sam Bradford, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers all see an improvement in completion percentage when playing playoff teams. Again, we find Stafford towards the bottom of the list.

Yards Per Game

Player Career yds/gm Playoff Tm yds/gm Yds/g Increase/Decrease Sam Bradford 239.32 258.90 8.18% Alex Smith 204.75 212.82 3.94% Tom Brady 262.05 271.06 3.44% Ben Roethlisberger 255.81 261.68 2.29% Russell Wilson 227.41 230.85 1.51% Andy Dalton 238.86 241.13 0.95% Drew Brees 284.96 287.13 0.76% Matt Ryan 265.50 263.91 -0.60% Philip Rivers 260.41 258.76 -0.63% Aaron Rodgers 272.79 269.46 -1.22% Joe Flacco 236.51 231.87 -1.96% Matthew Stafford 278.01 271.55 -2.32% Eli Manning 242.30 236.56 -2.37% Jay Cutler 233.58 227.85 -2.45% Carson Palmer 254.42 247.29 -2.80% Cam Newton 236.65 226.42 -4.32%

About half of players improve in this statistic - Sam Bradford significantly so. Also, significant is the decrease in production from Cam Newton. Perhaps a result of him relying on his legs more in presumably tighter coverage. Stafford again toward the bottom of the list, but trending in the right direction.

Touchdowns Per Game

Player Career TD/gm Playoff Tm TD/gm TD/gm Increase/Decrease Russell Wilson 1.59 1.77 11.45% Joe Flacco 1.32 1.35 2.59% Alex Smith 1.15 1.13 -1.83% Sam Bradford 1.26 1.23 -1.84% Aaron Rodgers 2.20 2.15 -2.10% Eli Manning 1.61 1.57 -2.18% Drew Brees 2.00 1.95 -2.93% Jay Cutler 1.50 1.44 -4.07% Cam Newton 1.48 1.39 -5.65% Ben Roethlisberger 1.64 1.54 -6.18% Tom Brady 1.94 1.81 -6.56% Matt Ryan 1.69 1.55 -8.08% Carson Palmer 1.64 1.49 -9.29% Philip Rivers 1.78 1.58 -11.25% Matthew Stafford 1.72 1.36 -20.63% Andy Dalton 1.53 1.13 -25.89%

Russell Wilson's touchdown production increases at a shocking 11.45% when he plays against playoff teams. Equally shocking are the decreases in production from Matthew Stafford and Andy Dalton, -20.63% and -25.89% respectively, each roughly doubling the next worst on the list - Philip Rivers.

Interceptions Per Game

Player Career Int/gm Playoff Tm INT/gm INT/gm Increase/Decrease Andy Dalton 0.87 0.76 -12.38% Sam Bradford 0.73 0.70 -4.21% Eli Manning 1.08 1.11 2.96% Matthew Stafford 0.99 1.02 3.07% Aaron Rodgers 0.53 0.55 3.85% Joe Flacco 0.85 0.90 5.81% Drew Brees 0.95 1.03 8.89% Carson Palmer 1.03 1.14 10.48% Matt Ryan 0.80 0.89 11.22% Cam Newton 0.85 0.95 11.74% Jay Cutler 1.05 1.18 12.10% Tom Brady 0.65 0.79 21.37% Alex Smith 0.67 0.82 22.05% Philip Rivers 0.89 1.08 22.22% Ben Roethlisberger 0.87 1.09 24.26% Russel Wilson 0.56 0.72 27.64%

Finally, Stafford is out of the statistical basement, although it does seem from Stafford's other statistics that this comes at the expense of a sharp drop off in completion percentage and touchdowns, indicating an overall distrust in the QB when playing playoff teams i.e. if you throw the ball fewer times you will throw fewer interceptions. Whatever the case may be, Stafford protects the ball relatively well when he plays against playoff teams.

Quarterback Rating

Player Career QBR Playoff Tm QBR QB Rating (PFR) Increase/Decrease Sam Bradford 84.5 86.30 2.13% Joe Flacco 84.50 83.18 -1.56% Russel Wilson 99.60 98.05 -1.56% Aaron Rodgers 104.10 102.05 -1.97% Eli Manning 83.70 81.48 -2.65% Cam Newton 86.10 83.51 -3.00% Andy Dalton 89.10 86.36 -3.08% Tom Brady 97.20 93.37 -3.94% Ben Roethlisberger 94.10 90.07 -4.29% Matt Ryan 93.60 89.47 -4.41% Jay Cutler 85.70 81.92 -4.41% Carson Palmer 88.00 83.99 -4.56% Drew Brees 96.30 91.78 -4.70% Alex Smith 85.30 80.50 -5.63% Philip Rivers 94.70 87.75 -7.34% Matthew Stafford 86.80 79.97 -7.87%

Perhaps the most telling of all the statistics, and we find Stafford coming in dead last. Of the 16 players researched, Stafford's QBR decreases the most when comparing his career statistics to his statistics when playing a playoff team.

Conclusion

It is unfair to compare Stafford's statistics to those of other QB, because, as mentioned, there are several other factors that can contribute to how good, or bad, a QBs statistics are. However, it is fair to compare statistical increases/decreases of Stafford to other QBs when playing playoff teams.

When doing so, the results speak for themselves.

The unfortunate answer to the question: which quarterback suffers most against good teams?

Matthew Stafford.