Jared Goff speaks at NFL Honors in New Orleans
Jared Goff spoke to the Detroit Free Press at the NFL Honors event in New Orleans on Feb. 6, 2025.
- Jared Goff expressed his discontent with how the Los Angeles Rams handled his trade to the Detroit Lions, stating the lack of communication felt like a “blindside.”
- Rams coach Sean McVay admitted to communication missteps during the trade process, acknowledging he could have handled the situation better.
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff is still feeling salty about how his exit from Los Angeles went down.
In an episode of Netflix’s “Quarterback” released on Tuesday, July 8, Goff opened up about his feelings immediately after being traded from the Los Angeles Rams to the Detroit Lions on Jan. 30, 2021:
“I think for me, ultimately, it was the fact that there was not a conversation had and there wasn’t like a, ‘Hey, we’re thinking of moving on’ type of thing. There was nothing,” Goff said in the episode.
“You wish that it wasn’t such a blindside, and you wish that there was some sort of maturity, I guess, to have that conversation and to be able to let me know what’s going on and how things went down and why this is happening.”
The Lions traded franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Rams for Goff and two first-round picks in 2021, with Stafford winning a Super Bowl in 2022 and Goff enjoying arguably his most successful stretch as a professional in his four seasons with the Lions.
For his part, Rams coach Sean McVay has already acknowledged how messy the communication was between the team and Goff in a 2021 article from the Los Angeles Times:
“Could I have handled it better in terms of, ‘Hey, if there’s a possibility of it let’s get ahead, even if you’re out of town, ‘yada, yada, yada?’ …. Yes, I wish that there was better, clearer communication,” he said. “I know I would do it a little bit differently when those situations arise in the future, but I think Jared knows the respect I have for him.”
Goff has previously said that the Rams sent him to Detroit as a “place to die,” but quickly saw the opportunity afforded to him in Detroit that was no longer in Los Angeles:
“In hindsight, (being traded to Detroit) was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, for my career and my development as a human,” he said on the Trading Cards podcast on April 7, 2024.
Goff played for the Rams from 2016-2020 before joining the Lions in 2021. He has a 39-25-1 record with the Lions and is four wins away from eclipsing the total he had with the Rams (42-27). He was twice named to the Pro Bowl as a Ram (2017-18) and twice as a Lion (2022 and 2024).
You can reach Christian at [email protected]