KCKingdom
Fansided

KC Chiefs: Would Matthew Stafford Be An Upgrade To Alex Smith

By Leigh Oleszczak

facebooktwitterreddit

The KC Chiefs have a bye week this Sunday, but that doesn’t stop the trade rumors out there. The most recent one involves Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and if he’d be a better option for Kansas City.

Right now, Alex Smith is still the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, but could Matthew Stafford be an improvement for the team?

Many would say yes.

Both guys are former number one overall picks: Smith in 2005 out of Utah and Stafford in 2009 out of Georgia. Smith is now with his second NFL team after things didn’t pan out for him in San Francisco, but Stafford is still with the team that drafted him in the Detroit Lions.

Stafford hasn’t had a good season so far with the Lions in 2015 and reports are surfacing that his future with the team is “very much in doubt”.

In eight games this season, Stafford has thrown for 2,083 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. Two of those 11 interceptions came last week in London against the KC Chiefs.

More from Chiefs Free Agency

The Chiefs have their own quarterback situation, as Alex Smith has been underperforming this season. He has less than 2,000 passing yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions. The biggest knock on Smith is that he can’t throw the deep ball and this seems to be people’s biggest annoyance with him.

Stafford has been known to sling it down the field, especially having Calvin Johnson as a member of his offense. Smith, until this season, hasn’t had a great wide receiver like that. Now he has Jeremy Maclin and there have been some improvements for the former Utah star.

Unfortunately, Chiefs Kingdom isn’t particularly thrilled with having Alex Smith as their guy, and many were calling for Chase Daniel to be the starter after the week five loss to the Chicago Bears. This is an unlikely situation.

Alex Smith signed a four-year extension before the 2014 season, meaning he isn’t even halfway through his deal yet. Don’t expect the Chiefs to cut ties with him so soon, and especially don’t expect them to go after a guy like Stafford.

Stafford very well could just be needing a change of scenery though. He looked good last season, throwing for over 4,200 yards, 22 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. So yeah, Stafford has almost thrown for more interceptions this season in just eight games than he did all last season.

Could Stafford be hitting the trading block? Matt Fitzgerald of Bleacher Report writes,

More from KC Kingdom

"With a new regime coming to Detroit and the current inside track for the No. 1 overall draft pick, the Lions could replace Stafford with a more cost-effective—and more effective in general—option.The 27-year-old signal-caller has two years remaining on his current contract and would be an $11 million cap hit in dead money if the Lions release him in 2016, per Spotrac. That means a trade could well be on the horizon."

While Matthew Stafford is better at getting the ball down the field, I don’t see the Kansas City Chiefs going after him. They have too much committed to Alex Smith, and Stafford wouldn’t be an easy acquisition. He’ll likely be a hot commodity on the trade market.

With the Chiefs at 3-5 on the year and a chance to turn their season around, Alex Smith has an opportunity to prove he can make big plays for this team. He’s never been great at throwing the ball deep, but he’s good at not turning the ball over. That’s the biggest difference between these two.

Next: Top 5 Quarterbacks in Chiefs History

So, Chiefs Kingdom, would you rather have Matthew Stafford in a Chiefs uniform or do you want Smith to stick around?

Home/Chiefs Free Agency