Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow offer divergent Super Bowl paths

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It's difficult if not impossible to downplay the importance of having a top-level quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Or even get to it.

Sure, there are exceptions such as Jared Goff, Nick Foles and Rex Grossman, though Foles played like a superstar in early 2018. Generally, the biggest names, from Brady to Mahomes, Manning (Peyton) to Manning (Eli), Wilson to Roethlisberger are the biggest achievers.

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Yet this Sunday's Super Bowl features a QB considered more of a talented journeyman, Matthew Stafford, and a second-year phenom whose first pro season was shortened by a knee injury, Joe Burrow. That's not exactly the script we expect.

For a dozen seasons in Detroit, Stafford did his best, but other than Hall of Fame receiver Calvin Johnson, he simply didn't have the help. He was lumped, probably unfairly given his work this season for the Rams, with the likes of Kirk Cousins, Alex Smith and Tony Romo.

Note that only one of them reached a Super Bowl, Smith as a backup to Colin Kaepernick in the 2012 season.

Stafford deserves a re-evaluation, particularly if he guides the Rams to their first championship since Kurt Warner, another Hall of Famer, did so in 1999 while the team was based in St. Louis.

"We went out and got him because we thought it was a chance to be able to get a great player of his magnitude," Rams coach Sean McVay says, never for a second regretting sending Goff, the top overall draft choice in 2016, and a slew of high picks to the Lions. "What he’s done, he’s elevated everybody around him. He’s made me a better coach. He’s made his teammates better."

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