One of the biggest trades in Detroit Lions history took place in January 2021, as they traded former first overall pick in quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in return for Jared Goff, two first-round picks (2022, 2023), and a third-round pick.
Since then, Stafford has led the Rams to a Super Bowl, while Goff led the Lions to within 30 minutes of an appearance in the Super Bowl in 2024, followed by a 15-2 season. Goff was also extended for four years and $212 million in a contract that has since been restructured.
Things didn’t end well between Goff and the Rams and head coach Sean McVay in particular, who is now expressing his regret on how the situation was handled.
Sean McVay Expresses Regret In How He Handled Current Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff
Making an appearance on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, McVay, who is still the coach of the Rams, expressed regret for not explaining to Goff in further detail after their final season with one another in 2020 that there was a chance he could potentially be moved.
“I’m super sensitive to what an amateur I was with the Goff situation, you know, trading him,” McVay said. “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 someone 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 part of a trade there.’
But instead, it’s kind of like, you know, you kind of get frustrated and it was more really about me than it was ever him. In terms of like, I had a lot of things that I needed to be able to work through, and I didn’t handle that the right way. And 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 hope to handle things moving forward. I don’t run away from that.
McVay continued:
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on. I think the important thing is to operate with clarity for people. You say, ‘Okay, so what do you mean by that?’ I was frustrated. Did I ever have the courage to sit him down after that season in 2020 and tell him, ‘Hey, there’s a possibility that we’ll explore some avenues that might lead to you not being our quarterback moving forward’? No. 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.”
Sean McVay Wishes He Operated With More Clarity With Goff
It’s clear that McVay, who won the Super Bowl with Stafford as his quarterback, wishes that he’d operated with a greater sense of clarity when it came to the move of Goff from the Rams.
Meanwhile, Goff has become a beloved member of the Motor City sports scene, helping the Lions reach heights that generations of fans had never before witnessed in their lives.
Sean McVay Drops Surprising Confession About Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff