Lions’ Jared Goff Wants Storybook Playoff Win Against Sean McVay’s Rams

Rams head coach Sean McVay said Wednesday that he regrets the way that his team treated quarterback Jared Goff before trading him to the Detroit Lions. Goff will play the Rams in the first round of the NFL Playoffs this weekend.

“I’ll never run away from that. But the further you get away from it, the more that you try to grow as a man, as a person, as the leader that you want to become — he deserved better than the way that it all went down. I’ll acknowledge that,” McVay told reporters. “And I think he knows that, too. And you know, and I’m not afraid to admit those things. But, I think we’re all better, being able to look back on those things. And I do have more appreciation for him as time goes on.”

In their first playoff game in nearly a decade, it is poetic that Goff and the Lions are facing the McVay and the Rams in the first round. A trade between the two teams three years ago defined their franchises to this day, sending two quarterbacks on vastly different trajectories that will briefly converge again this weekend.

Despite leading Los Angeles to four straight winning seasons between 2017 and 2020, including a trip to the Super Bowl in 2018, Goff was traded away to the Detroit Lions before the 2021 season. At the time, McVay and others in the Rams organization simply did not believe in his ability to lead the team going forward. Goff’s replacement, longtime Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory the following year.

While McVay and Stafford caught fire immediately and won a championship, Goff struggled during a tumultuous rebuild in Detroit. In his first season with the Lions, they went 3-13-1. Over time, however, Goff and Lions head coach Dan Campbell have worked together to cultivate one of the most exciting teams in the NFL.

“Until you’re around [Goff], like I’ve been around him, I don’t want to say it surprised me, but yet, you really get to understand just how resilient he is and how his ability to bounce back – he can look at a situation and take it for what it is,” Campbell said of his quarterback at the end of the 2023 regular season.

In 2023, Goff led an offense featuring star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and rookie tight end Sam LaPorta. Running backs David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs both thrived in the backfield as well. Goff threw a career-high 407 completions for 4,575 yards and 30 touchdowns, leading Detroit to a 12-5 record and its first division title since 1993.

As the third seed in the NFL Playoffs, the Lions will host their first playoff game against McVay and the sixth-seeded Rams. It will be Stafford’s first game at Ford Field since his 2021 departure.

“The opportunity happens to be in Detroit, which is fun for me on a personal level,” Stafford said Wednesday. “It is going to be rocking there. They haven’t had a playoff game there in about 30 years or whatever it is. So it will be a great atmosphere.”

As for Goff, the once-disrespected quarterback leading another team to the playoffs, he told ESPN that he will never forget the trade that sent him to Detroit. But more than anything, he went on to say that he is playing this weekend to win a playoff game for a franchise long overdue for one.

“I so badly want to win a playoff game for this city that hasn’t had one in so long,” Goff said. “We’ve got a home playoff game for the first time in so long and that’s so much more important than anything personally for me. I want to be a part of this win and do my job the best of my ability.”