Lions and Rams and Trades, Oh My!

Late Saturday night, the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams made a blockbuster trade–a quarterback swap. 

The Lions let go of their longtime franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford, in exchange for 26-year-old quarterback Jared Goff. two future first-round picks, and a third-round pick.

Who wins? Who loses?

We’ll soon find out just how good is Matthew Stafford (photo, CBSSports)

We’ll start with Stafford.

Drafted first in 2009 by a Lions’ team that went 0-16 the year prior, Stafford was ‘The Chosen One.” With a rocket of an arm, the ability to read defenses, and a good decision-maker, it was an easy pick.

And–true to form–Stafford would go on to become the team’s quarterback G.O.A.T. In 165 games, he threw for 45,109 yards, had 282 passing touchdowns, and finished in Detroit with an 89.9 QBR.

While Stafford was never the best NFL quarterback during his tenure with Detroit (he played in only one Pro Bowl), he’s liked and respected around the NFL for being a solid QB and team leader.

The problem was winning. With Stafford, the Lions were over .500 only four times with three playoff appearances. That’s not good enough.

What about Jared Goff?

Another first pick (2016), Goff was taken out of the University of California by the newly-relocated Los Angeles Rams. While many thought Carson Wentz would go #1, the Rams took a local guy that many thought would be a great fit.

And we presumed that McVay and Goff were inseparable! (photo, ClutchPoints)

But it didn’t start that way. After relieving Case Keenum at midseason in his rookie year, the Rams were a disappointing 0-7.

Then, boom! LAR went 11-4 and 13-3 in consecutive years, and–better yet–the Rams were in the 2018 Super Bowl.

In five seasons in LA, Goff went 42-27 (61%), threw 107 touchdowns, and had 18,171 passing yards/1,536 completions. Although a great fit for Sean McVay’s offense, there were hiccups, changes had to be made, and we know now that replacing Goff is one of those changes.

Meanwhile, ‘change’ is the name of the game in Motown. The Lions have a new GM (Brad Holmes), a new head coach (Dan Campbell), and, now, a new quarterback (Jared Goff).

Goff brings renewed hope–I think a new sort of flash–to Detroit. And if the Lions can bring in more talent to surround him, I think Goff will flourish in the NFC North. That’s where those first-round draft picks come into play. If I were the Lions, I’d take excellent care of the picks because how they use them may be the defining aspect of Goff’s story in Motown.

So who wins this trade?

While Stafford is arguably the better QB, he also has six years of age on Goff. Plus, LAR gave up two first-round picks.

Obviously, we’ll have to see how things shake out, but (for now) we can definitely say that the Stafford-Goff trade is the biggest NFL trade to drop this post-season.

In a word, it’s WOW!