Rich Gannon spent more than a decade in the NFL and was generally regarded as a backup or, at best, a mediocre starter. Then he went to the Raiders, where he flourished in Jon Gruden’s offense, being selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons with the Raiders, twice being named first-team All-Pro and once league MVP. Gannon sees some of himself in Matthew Stafford.
Gannon acknowledges that Stafford is starting from a higher place in the quarterback pecking order than Gannon did with the Raiders, but Gannon believes that playing for a new team in the Rams and a new head coach in Sean McVay, Stafford is ready for the best years of his career.
“You look at Sean and you look at Matthew,” Gannon told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. “I see some similarities to when I went to Oakland with Jon Gruden. I was at a point where I had bounced around a little bit and no one ever really. . . . I mean it’s different; he was the No. 1 draft pick and I kind of had to find my way. But he’s going to a situation where he’s a got a young head coach who’s a really good play caller, very innovative, really involved in coaching that position. And that’s where Jon was with me, and we just hit it off. We never looked back.”
The Rams can only hope that McVay is as good for Stafford as Gruden was for Gannon.
