Everyone knows about the blockbuster trade that went down this weekend. The Lions dealt Matthew Stafford for Jared Goff and a haul of picks. Goff’s stock has dropped dramatically since the Rams played in the Super Bowl two years ago, and especially during the final two or so months during this past 2020 season. It seemed that his relationship with Sean McVay became especially rocky mid-season. After the October loss to the Nick Mullens-led 49ers, McVay would always looked way more animated when the Rams QB struggled or turnover the ball. Nothing was really the same after that. Goff looked terrible in an embarrassing loss to the Jets who were winless at the time, and then had no impact in the following game’s loss against the Seahawks. He broke his thumb in the Seattle loss which kept him out for the last game of season, where Jon Wolford, who was in the AAF and applying for finance jobs, wowed McVay enough to bench Goff for the wild card divisional game. It ended up that Wolford had to leave the playoff game against Seattle and Goff came in early. Jared only put up pedestrian numbers, but he was playing with screws in a thumb he broke two weeks prior. He ended up putting similar numbers against the Packers the following week but had some good throws and the Rams were in the game for most of the 60 minutes.

It’s not like the Lions are getting a generational gunslinger in Goff, but he’s certainly not some slouch either. When was the last time the Detroit football team had a starting QB who had already previously started in a Super Bowl? Never. The Rams have had a great offense engineered by McVay, but Jared deserves at least SOME credit for winning playoff games and going to two Pro-Bowls. He’ll bring valuable experience to a Lions locker room that couldn’t be thirstier for a winning culture. And and know we’ve had super bowl winning players, but this is different than washed up former Patriots players. This is a 26 year old quarterback who’s already won three playoff games and Super Bowl against one of the greatest defensive minds of all-time.

I’m not trying to say that we should have crazy expectations for Goff in Detroit, but just to not be as low on him as he’s looked recently. He’s going to be motivated for a fresh start with a team who wanted him and a GM who made the call for the Rams to draft him. I also like the potential relationship between him and newly hired OC Anthony Lynn. Justin Herbert, who is a somewhat similar style upright pocker passer like Jared, excelled in his rookie year under Lynn, so theres a chance the the former Chargers HC can unlock something with Goff. Lastly, having Goff puts less pressure on immediately drafting a new franchise QB. With the 7th overall pick in this years draft, the Lions would most likely have to trade up for Zach Wilson or Trey Lance, who I like as the next two guys behind Trevor Lawrence. Justin Fields could be there at #7, but I’m not really that huge on him. If Brad Holmes and the front office absolutely LOVES one of them, then fine I don’t have an issue with getting them. But I just think that there’s too many holes on the team to waste our draft capital on to trade up and we could get a haul from a team looking to trade up to #7. There’s also intriguing QB prospects in the 2022 Draft class with Sam Howell, Spencer Rattler, & J.T. Daniels. Either way, this is probably the most exciting Lions off-season possibly ever and it’ll be interesting to see how it unravels. LFG Detroit!

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