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The Rams wanted to get rid of Jared Goff, and in the end, that was fine with the former No. 1 overall pick.
“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,” Goff told the Los Angeles Times. “You don’t want to be in the wrong place. It became increasingly clear that was the case.”
And it resulted in Goff being traded – along with an assortment of draft picks – to the Lions in exchange for their longtime quarterback, Matthew Stafford.
The trade can’t become official until March, but it marks the end of a remarkably swift downfall for Goff in Los Angeles – one that even Goff is left wondering about.
“That’s the tough part right now, is trying to figure that out, when did that happen?” Goff said of when the Rams decided to make a change. “Those are all conversations that I may or may not have, and try to figure it out. That’s the conversation to have.”
After Los Angeles selected Goff first overall in 2016, he and head coach Sean McVay led the Rams to the playoffs in 2017, Goff’s second season, and the Super Bowl in 2018.
But Goff’s production slipped each of the past two seasons, and the Rams lost to the Packers in the divisional round of the playoffs.
After the defeat, McVay was asked if Goff was still the team’s quarterback.
“Yeah, he’s our quarterback, right now,” McVay said.
Goff’s future in Los Angeles got even murkier shortly after the season, when general manager Les Snead was equally non-committal about how the team viewed Goff.
“Jared Goff is a Ram right now,’’ Snead said 10 days after the season was over. “So, what’s the date? Jan. 26.”
And he wouldn’t be a Ram for much longer, despite the fact that the four-year, $134 million extension he signed in 2019 (with $110 million guaranteed) didn’t kick in until 2021.
But his production diminished with the new deal and, according to a report in Pro Football Talk, McVay became “fixated” on Stafford.
Stafford, who turns 33 this week, asked out of Detroit following another disappointing season by the Lions. He has played in just three postseason games – all losses – since the Lions made him the No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft.
And although the Rams have had considerably more success, they’ll now have to build a team around Stafford with somewhat limited funds. Goff will still count for $22.2 million against the Rams’ salary cap in 2021, and Stafford is due $20 million, so Los Angeles has $42.2 million invested in the QB spot with the salary cap expected to shrink or remain stagnant.
Regardless of the outcome, Goff, 26, is pleased to be getting a fresh start.
“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,” Goff said. “That’s the biggest feeling that I was overcome with that night, and even in the days following.”
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