It’s been five years since Jared Goff last played for the Los Angeles Rams.
And while many believe him getting traded to the Detroit Lions was ultimately the best thing for his career, there were some hard feelings on both sides when that trade went down back in 2020.
During an appearance on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, Rams head coach Sean McVay even admitted that looking back at the situation, he’s disgusted with how he treated Goff when it went down.
“What an amateur I was with the Goff situation, you know, trading him,” McVay stated. “You say, well why do you say that? You want to talk about lack of courage, lack of clarity, lack of ability to be able to look somebody in the eye that you’ve had a lot of really cool experiences with and tell him, ‘Hey not easy to say, but we might explore an opportunity to acquire Matthew Stafford and you’ll be a part of a trade there.’
“But instead it’s like you kind of get frustrated, and really it was more about me than it was ever him in terms of like I had a lot of things that I needed to work through, and I didn’t handle that the right way. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have made the decision, but the handling of it was exactly the antithesis of how I would’ve hoped to handle things moving forward. I don’t run away from that.”
When the trade was announced that sent Stafford from the Lions to the Rams in exchange for Goff, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a 2021 third-round pick, it took most by surprise, including Goff himself.
In fact, McVay revealed not letting Goff know there was a possibility he could be traded was the one thing he regrets most about that offseason.
“Did I ever have the courage to really sit him down after that season in 2020 and really tell him, ‘Heym there’s a possibility that we’ll explore some avenues that might lead to you not being our quarterback moving forward?’ No,” McVay continued. “Would I do it differently now? Absolutely.
“I think the biggest thing that I learned that he was able to share — and I appreciate his honesty on all of that, and there is nobody to blame but myself — but it was really like what did he not like the most about it? He was caught off-guard. You’re like where did this come from because I didn’t have the courage to communicate in the midst of it.”
In the five seasons since Goff was traded to Detroit, he’s gone 48-33-1 as the Lions’ starter, passing for 21,451 yards, 149 touchdowns, and 47 interceptions with a 101.3 passer rating. He’s made three Pro Bowls in that span and signed a four-year, $212 million contract extension.
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