These stats show one major difference between Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff

By most accounts, the Los Angeles Rams seem to have upgraded at quarterback by trading Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford. Goff has struggled for the last two seasons in Sean McVay’s offense, while Stafford continued to play at a high level on bad Lions teams.

There are clear differences between Goff and Stafford, but there’s a huge gap between their downfield passing ability. Goff both refused to take deep shots and struggled when he did throw them the last two seasons after thriving on such plays in 2017 and 2018. Stafford consistently throws deep downfield and has success in doing so.

Advanced statistics paint a very clear picture between the two quarterbacks when it comes to throwing deep downfield. For starters, Stafford has attempted them nearly twice as often as Goff in the last two years.

Stafford has an absolute cannon of an arm and knows how to put enough air under the ball to allow his receiver to track it. Goff’s arm is plenty good enough to take shots downfield, just as he did with Brandin Cooks, but his deep accuracy simply wasn’t there in 2019 and 2020.

Warren Sharp shared efficiency stats for both quarterbacks when throwing at least 16 yards downfield and the gap is evident. Stafford averages almost three times as many expected points added per attempt (EPA/att) on deep throws, and a much higher yards per attempt.

And finally, the turnover and touchdown discrepancy on deep passes between Goff and Stafford. This past season, Goff threw only four touchdown passes and six interceptions on 20-plus-yard passes.

Stafford had the same number of interceptions, but he had more than three times the number of touchdown passes Goff had (13). That makes a huge difference, and it’s an example of the Rams’ inability to strike quickly this season.

Goff isn’t completely to blame for his lack of efficiency when throwing deep. The absence of Cooks hurt the Rams in a big way, as they lacked a true downfield threat with elite speed. The offensive line also didn’t give Goff much time in 2019, preventing plays from developing deep.

But at the same time, his unwillingness to even attempt those throws was concerning and it condensed the Rams offense to being a dink-and-dunk operation, forcing them to sustain long drives to score touchdowns.

That won’t be an issue with Stafford under center.