More than a decade later, Golden Tate still has the same quarterback take. He believed Matthew Stafford was better than Russell Wilson then, and he believes it now. What has changed is not Tate’s opinion, but how Stafford is viewed. The former Seahawks and Lions receiver played with both quarterbacks, giving him a firsthand perspective few people in the debate can match. His latest comments only reinforce how strongly he felt Stafford was being underrated while Wilson was getting the greater recognition.

Speaking on the Brice Butler Studios podcast, Tate revisited a time when choosing Stafford over Wilson was still controversial. “I knew once he got to LA that he was about to go stupid,” Tate said on the podcast. “That was during a time where everyone thought Stafford was just a mediocre quarterback, and everyone would always ask me, ‘So who do you think’s a better quarterback, Russell Wilson or Matthew Stafford?’”

At the time, Wilson had what Stafford did not: postseason success. He had already won Super Bowl XLVIII, reached another Super Bowl the next season, and earned six Pro Bowl selections through the 2018 season. Stafford, meanwhile, had spent a decade in Detroit without a single playoff victory.

“Before they could even finish the question, I was saying Matthew Stafford, and everyone was looking at me like I was crazy,” Tate recalled. He was even more direct when pressed: “They was like, ‘You think he’s better than Russell Wilson?’ I’m like, ‘My humble opinion is not even close,’ right?”

“People were like mad at me for saying that. Thought I was like a Russell hater. And I was like, ‘It’s just my truth.’”

Tate had seen enough to trust that opinion. He spent two seasons with Wilson in Seattle and more than four with Stafford in Detroit, giving him a close look at Stafford’s arm talent and ability to make difficult throws.

And Stafford’s arm talent was hardly a secret. The No. 1 overall pick in 2009 entered the NFL with elite physical tools, with analyst Bucky Brooks later describing him as having “A+ arm talent and passing skills.” His velocity and ability to make throws from awkward positions only strengthened that reputation.

That belief was not something Tate developed years later. Just months after leaving Seattle for Detroit in 2014, he said Stafford’s throws “get there way quicker” and praised his ability to squeeze the ball into tight windows.

Five years later, Tate went even further, calling Stafford “the best quarterback I’ve played with.”

Tate’s 2019 claim did not go unchallenged.

Colin Cowherd dismissed it almost immediately, saying, “This is not a take, it’s a hill you’re going to die on alone.” Cowherd’s point was blunt. Wilson had already proved he could win and elevate a team. Stafford, for all his talent, was still being treated as a quarterback whose numbers had not translated into anything that mattered.

CBS went even further, arguing the numbers left little room for debate. Wilson led Stafford in completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown rate, interception rate and passer rating, while already owning an 8-5 playoff record, two Super Bowl trips and a ring.

But Bucky Brooks was the one who saw it differently.

He argued that Stafford had spent years carrying Detroit without a reliable running game, while Wilson entered the league with Marshawn Lynch and one of football’s best defenses. “Stafford has been expected to single-handedly carry the Lions’ offense,” Brooks wrote in his July 2019 Scout’s Notebook column before concluding that Tate’s stance “isn’t necessarily a hot take.”

For Brooks, the gap in team success said as much about their surroundings as it did about the quarterbacks themselves. And Stafford’s Detroit years made that argument easy to understand.

Stafford Finally Made Tate’s Old Take Hard to Ignore

Stafford had the numbers, but Detroit had the baggage.

The Lions went 74-90-1 in Stafford’s regular-season starts and 0-3 in the playoffs during his time in Detroit, despite him throwing for 45,109 yards and 282 touchdowns.

Tate still made the partnership work. He posted 99 catches for 1,331 yards and earned his first Pro Bowl in 2014, then added two more 1,000-yard seasons with 1,077 yards in 2016 and 1,003 in 2017.

Then Stafford left Detroit, and Tate felt the debate finally moved his way. “He goes there and all of a sudden everyone sees what I’ve been saying,” Tate recalled, joking that people started “backpedaling like Deion in his prime” before telling him, “You were right. You’re right, GT. Staff is that guy.”

Stafford backed it up immediately. In his first Rams season, he threw for 4,886 yards and 41 touchdowns before leading Los Angeles to a Super Bowl LVI title.

That ended the biggest knock on him. Stafford finally had the ring to match the talent, and he kept adding to the case. At 37, he led the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns in 2025, threw just eight interceptions and won MVP.

Wilson still has a strong case. His career numbers currently stand at 46,966 passing yards, 353 touchdowns, a 99.3 passer rating and 10 Pro Bowl selections, along with a Super Bowl title.

But Tate never changed his mind. Stafford’s career simply made his old take much harder to laugh at.