Madden 12 Player Ratings: Lions QB Matt Stafford Tragically Underrated

While trying to determine the Detroit Lions' most dominant players on Madden 12 yesterday, I could not include the team's franchise quarterback.

Matthew Stafford is not even considered one of the most talented players on the Detroit Lions roster. His 80 overall rating shows a lack of respect to a player with a much longer resumé than his counterpart Kevin Kolb who received an 85 overall rating before being traded to Arizona.

If we throw out the preseason performances and simply look at Stafford the way the EA guys did before they released their original ratings, Stafford still deserves a greater rating than 80.

Statistically as a rookie he had a horrible season. He threw 13 touchdown passes to 20 interceptions and completed only 53% of his passes. However the EA scouts are smart enough to consider the circumstances.

Stafford was arriving at a team that had very little talent. The remains of the winless Lions of 2007 essentially gave him Calvin Johnson and little else to work with while there weren't radical changes made to the offense with Brandon Pettigrew also arriving as a rookie tight end.

He may not have been the most accurate quarterback in the game but the pieces he was playing with accounted for a portion of his poor statistics.

That was proven to be a fact during his second season. Despite only showing for a short stint before being injured and landing on IR, Stafford managed to catch the eye of most onlookers with his impressive play.

In three games, against three quality defenses in the Bears, Redskins and Jets, Stafford threw for six touchdowns and only one interception. His completion percentage remained below 60% only peaking at 59.4% but the fact that he was carrying the burden of the offense in two of those three games makes that understandable.

Stafford threw for 45 and 36 passes in his final two games before being injured after returning from injury at midseason. In those two games he threw all six of his touchdowns for that season.

Does this sound like a player that deserves an 81 for throwing accuracy and 71 for awareness?

Not at all.

Stafford may have his injury issues and the question marks over his durability remain unanswered for the moment but he's definitely more talented than Kevin Kolb and deserves a higher rating than many of the quarterbacks above him in the new version of Madden.