Notes: NFL team employees rank Matthew Stafford as the 10th-best quarterback

A month or so ago, we gave you our top 10 quarterbacks for the 2020 season. Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford came in at No. 5 on our list, but let’s be honest, we’re not exactly the most objective group of people to ask. I think many NFL analysts outside Detroit would have Stafford near the bottom of a top-10 list or potentially off the list entirely.

However, ESPN recently polled a bunch of NFL employees—from league executives to coaches to player scouts—to see who people inside the league think are the best quarterbacks in the league right now.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Patrick Mahomes was No. 1 on the list, but Stafford did manage to break the top 10, coming in at the very bottom of the list. His highest ranking among pollers was four (!!) and his lowest was 14. Here are a few interesting quotes from the article.

“He’s a major talent who’d probably be a top-five quarterback with an established franchise,” according to one NFC executive. “He can score from anywhere on the field.”

His biggest criticism, of course, was simply team accomplishments.

“What has he really done?” was the response from multiple executives, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

You can check out the entire list here if you have ESPN Insider.

• The Baltimore Ravens announced on Tuesday that 2020 season tickets will be deferred to next year, and that the audience capacity for this year will be fewer than 14,000 fans, if fans are allowed at all. (Note: their typical capacity is 71,008, and they play outdoors.)

• NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein ranked D’Andre Swift as the No. 3 candidate to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2020.

• The NFL is reportedly proposing a deal that would cause 35 percent of player salaries to be held in escrow for the 2020 season. Unsurprisingly, players are not having it:

• Want to relive the first Jeff Driskel game from last season? Yeah, neither do I, but Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire did it for us and listed some observations from nine months in the future.

• Don Muhlbach is incapable of aging:

• Some NFL.com guy predicted the Lions to go 3-13.