74-90-1 and 0-3 in the playoffs is your example?
Comes here in 2021 with:
A future HOF head coach
One of the more stacked rosters top to bottom in both sides of the ball
He wasn’t going to the Hall until he got here
The defense and offense were't
nearly as stacked as you think.
Aside from AD and Ramsey, who did we
really have who was elite and in their prime? An aging Von Miller? Leonard Floyd? A rookie Ernest Jones (who wasn't nearly as good as he was for the Hags)? A broken Eric Weddle coming out from retirement?
Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee went down during the season. When OBJ went down in the Super Bowl, we had Kupp and a whole bunch of nobodies as receivers, running backs, and tight ends in the game; we won most of our games in the playoffs, notably, with little contributions in the run game. Whitworth was an elite left tackle, but he was a lot older and not in his prime, and the rest of the O-line wasn't stacked either.
And the fact that he even
got the hapless Lions to three playoff series should show you that he could succeed, even with bad teams.
Stafford has succeeded with far less than Roethlisberger, and yes, his stats alone would've gotten him to the Hall, even without rings, much like Dan Marino. Maybe it wouldn't be first ballot like he will be, but his stats are amongst the best of those who have played in the NFL, and he clearly wasn't a compiler.
Roethlisberger is fucking overrated and needed everything to go right to win (and very well could've lost both Super Bowls - the first because the refs were absolutely biased against the Hags and the second win was a last-second drive with Santonio Holmes going nuts against the Cardinals). Stafford won with little behind him It's true that any quarterback needs help to make the Super Bowl, but a truly great QB can show signs of life, even little around him.