Getty Jared Goff #16 of the Detroit Lions.
Emotions will be running high when the Los Angeles Rams visit the Detroit Lions on Super Wild Card Weekend. For Lions quarterback Jared Goff, those sentiments have lingered since the Rams traded him in 2021.
“Of course,” Goff said, per ESPN’s Eric Woodyard on January 10. “I think it’ll never leave me, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Goff was traded, along with a bevy of draft picks, for Matthew Stafford.
Goff led the Rams to the Super Bowl in 2018. But he is hungry for a playoff win in Detroit now. It would be the Lions’ first since the 1991 season.
“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.”
🏈 23/32 passing
🏈 320 yards
🏈 2 TD | 0 INT
🏈 124.5 rtg
The 28-year-old Goff led his team to a better record by two games this season. But it is Stafford who will represent the NFC as one of three quarterbacks in the 2024 Pro Bowl Games.
Goff completed 61.1% of his passes for 268 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions in his first time out against his new team. It was a 28-19 Rams home win in Week 7 of the 2021 season. He will surely be seeking redemption for that as well this time out.
“Ton of respect for him and him as a player and everything he’s done, he’s a Hall of Fame player in my book and I saw this as an opportunity for me to build my own legacy and being at the ground floor of something special and something that we can hopefully build to even more special than right now.”
Goff and Stafford, both former No. 1 overall picks in their respective classes, are forever linked by that trade. This season, Goff finished with better overall statistics. But he and Stafford – who missed two games – finished with similar per-pass numbers.
Matthew Stafford Embracing ‘Bad Guy’ Role
GettyMatthew Stafford #9 of the Los Angeles Rams.
This is a homecoming for Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick in 2009 (2016 for Goff). He spent the first 12 years of his career in Detroit. Stafford went to the postseason three times with the Lions, and they never advanced beyond the Wild Card round.
He led the Rams to their second Super Bowl victory in franchise history in his first season under center in 2021. And he enters this contest ready for whatever may happen.
“I’m not expecting anything,” Stafford said, per Grant Gordon of NFL.com on January 10.
“The biggest thing for me is just to go and experience whatever that experience is gonna be. I understand what the people of Detroit and the city of Detroit meant to me in my time and my career, what they meant to my family. I hope they feel that back, but at the same time I’m not a stranger to the situation and understanding that I’m the bad guy coming to town.”
Rams Enter Super Wild Card Showdown vs Lions as Hotter Team
GettyHead coach Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams.
Stafford went on to explain how proud he was of the team. They overcame a 3-6 start to go 7-1 in the second half of the season.
That makes the Rams the hotter team versus a Lions squad that is 5-3 over its last eight games.
Stafford completed 68.3% of his passes for 334 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions in his first meeting against his former team. This could turn out to be an explosive Wild Card matchup.