| The Detroit News
The trade won’t be finalized until the middle of March, the start of the NFL’s new league year, but everyone knows Matthew Stafford is heading to Los Angeles and Jared Goff is coming back from the Rams to take Stafford’s place as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions.
But until it becomes official, no one from either organization is allowed to acknowledge it’s happening, at least on the record.
Still, that doesn’t prohibit the players involved in the transaction from talking. And while requests for comment from Stafford’s camp have been met with silence to this point, Goff has shared his some initial thoughts, first with some brief comments to NFL.com, followed by an extensive interview with the Los Angeles Times published Tuesday evening.
Goff, who the Rams drafted No. 1 overall in 2016 and helped lead the franchise to three playoff berths the past four seasons, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2019, opened up to the Times about the rapid dissolving of the relationship with the only franchise he’s known during his pro career.
“Ultimately, they wanted to go in a different direction,” Goff told the Los Angeles Times. “As the quarterback, as the guy that’s at arguably the most important position on the field, if you’re in a place that you’re not wanted and they want to move on from you, the feeling’s mutual.
“You don’t want to be in the wrong place. It became increasingly clear that was the case. (The trade) is something that I’m hopeful is going to be so good for my career.”
Understandably, Goff was initially disappointed with the news. It never feels good to know you aren’t wanted. But once he reflected on the flip side of the news, that the Lions were eager to bring him aboard, the quarterback’s outlook changed.
Talking to multiple members of Detroit’s organization, including coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes — who played an integral role in Rams selecting Goff while serving as the franchise’s college scouting director — has reinvigorated the quarterback.
After those conversations, Goff told the Times, “‘Oh my God, this is how it’s supposed to feel. This makes me feel great,’ how excited they were, how fired up they were.
“…As time has gone on over the last few days, and even the end of that night, it becomes a positive and you start to feel really good about yourself again. You start to feel, I don’t want to say relief is the word, but you start to feel happy, grateful, ready for a new opportunity. That’s the biggest feeling that I was overcome with that night, and even in the days following.”
Goff told the Times he’s still unclear when the tide turned against him in Los Angeles, and while he remains hopeful to get some insight from the team’s brass, he understands he may never get that information.
Despite the breakup, particularly with Rams coach Sean McVay seeming to slowly turn on Goff with his public comments toward the end of last season, there’s no animosity from the latter.
“Regardless of how it ended, me and Sean had a great relationship and did so many great things together,” Goff told the Times. “Won a bunch of big games. Won a bunch of playoff games. Won two divisions together. Having so much success on the offense, so many good times and memories. …Unfortunately it ended sourly, but it still doesn’t take away from all those times we had.”
What comes next for Goff is an opportunity to prove those who didn’t believe in him wrong. After two subpar years, he’ll come to Detroit looking to recapture his early-career momentum, when he posted a passer rating above 100 across the 2017 and 2018 seasons, earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods in the process.
“I’m not going to sit here and beat my own drum, but I have a lot of pride in being able to be resilient, to have that as a part of my makeup,” Goff told the Times. “We had so many great times here, and then there were times that I did have to dig deep, be a man about it, and handle things the right way. I think I did that.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers