How much longer will Jared Goff lean into Rams mistreatment narrative?

Jared Goff revisited his Rams exit in Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ trailer, but it may be time to move on.

We are more than five years removed from the Los Angeles Rams trading away quarterback Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions in exchange for Matthew Stafford. Goff has played just four fewer games with the Lions than he did with the Rams. Additionally, this will be his fifth season in Detroit which will match the number of seasons that he was in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, the Netflix show ‘Quarterback’ will return for a second season and one of the quarterbacks featured in the season will be Goff. It shouldn’t be any surprise that one of the main storylines covered in the show will be how Goff was cast away in Los Angeles and revitalized his career in Detroit. That was certainly the case in one of the show’s trailers for season two.

While Goff being traded to the Lions is certainly an important chapter in Goff’s career, the question here is, after five years, how much longer will Goff and the media lean into the narrative that he was mistreated by the Rams? In the trailer, Goff says about the trade,

“A lot of people saw it as I was being cast away or I was being sent to my career to die and I think a lot of people in my former organization may have thought that as well.”

Goff is probably correct in that some probably saw it as he was being cast away and probably predicted that he would be a career backup within two years. It’s a credit to Goff that he has shown to be a quarterback worth building around for the Lions.

At the same time, the part where he says, “I think a lot of people in my former organization may have thought that as well,” is where the narrative gets murky. This seems to imply that Goff is saying that Sean McVay, Les Snead, and others in the Rams organization were wishing for him to fail.

Leaning too heavily into the mistreatment narrative runs the risk of misrepresenting what was, at its core, a football decision. Following the win over the Lions in 2021, McVay said afterwards,

“I thought he did a great job. He handled it well and made a couple big time throws. The first third down and nine where they caught us in a pressure and he delivers. I wasn’t surprised, he did a good job. You know, credit to him.”

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that an athlete took being traded personally. However, from the Rams perspective, it was never personal. There are certainly some things that could have been handled better from McVay’s perspective. The Rams head coach has admitted as much. Back in 2022, McVay said,

“If I had it over again, what I would do is, before I had even gone to Cabo, when there was a possibility of, alright, if Matthew Stafford’s available, if there’s other quarterbacks available, that would be something that we would explore — you sit down with him, you look him in the eye, you tell him that instead of calling him and setting up a meeting where that was my intention when I got back from Cabo.”

McVay could have also shown more patience with a young quarterback. If the Rams draft a rookie next year, the Rams head coach will get an opportunity to learn from that experience.

The NFL can sometimes be cruel and has always been a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league. Heading into 2021, the Rams were on the cusp of being ready to compete. During the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Goff ranked 24th out of 35 qualifying quarterbacks in adjusted EPA per play. Additionally, in 2019, he had 16 interceptions and threw 13 more in 2020. That doesn’t mention his 17 fumbles over the two seasons.

McVay saw an opportunity to expedite the development process by trading for a veteran quarterback in Stafford. It was a risk that paid off and resulted in a Super Bowl trophy. Five years later, there are still questions on whether or not Goff has what it takes to take a team over the top. That was emphasized last year when Goff threw three interceptions in a playoff loss to the Washington Commanders. In four playoff games for the Lions, Goff has two games with a passer rating under 90. Stafford has one such occurrence in seven playoff games with the Rams.

The Rams made a move that was best for them while Goff has made the most of his situation with the Lions. There was no mistreatment by trading Goff to Detroit or some inner feeling of thinking or hoping that Goff would fail. Ironically, it’s Stafford who has often received a colder reception when returning to Detroit.

Last year, Goff did an interview for a piece with Mike Silver of The Athletic and was quoted saying, “Everyone externally just assumed that I suck because why else would this be happening…They (Lions fans) knew I was dumped by this team.” Now, Goff will be featured on ‘Quarterback’ and, based on the trailer, there will be more leaning into the ‘mistreatment’ narrative.

At the end of the day, the swap of Goff and Stafford has been exactly what teams hope for when they make a trade. It’s worked out for both sides and the Rams and Lions both got exactly what they wanted out of it. The Rams got a Super Bowl and the Lions got a young quarterback and assets to rebuild.

Goff played a big role in the Rams’ turnaround in 2017 and the Super Bowl run in 2018. However, he also wasn’t a two-time MVP like Kurt Warner that was tossed to the curb after two poor seasons in 2002 and 2003.

As ‘Quarterback’ airs on Netflix and this storyline resurfaces, it’s worth remembering that this wasn’t a tragedy. Goff has rebuilt his career in Detroit and the Rams got a Lombardi Trophy. While athletes tend to use perceived disrespect as motivation, the continued framing of the trade as if the Rams wronged Goff starts to feel more like resentment. While Goff continues to lean into the mistreatment narrative, it’s important to remember that this is a story of two franchises making a bold decision and seeing it pay off.