Clint Lamb
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Matthew Stafford is officially on the move. After rumors began to circulate that the longtime Detroit Lion would be moved prior to the Super Bowl, the deal is now complete.
According to NFL insider Adam Schefter, the Los Angeles Rams are sending two future first-round picks, a third-round pick and Jared Goff to Detroit in exchange for Stafford. That news was announced late on Saturday night.
Detroit is dealing QB Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for two future first-round picks, a third-round pick and QB Jared Goff, per sources. Two former No. 1 overall picks trading places in the first blockbuster NFL trade of 2021.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2021
This move instantly makes the NFC West more competitive. The Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers are all competitive teams right now, but mediocre-to-poor quarterback play has plagued Los Angeles in recent years.
The team still managed to win 10 games this season and finish second in the division, but Stafford will provide a sizable upgrade at the most important position on the field. He completed 64.2 percent of his passes in 2020 for 4,084 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Imagining him in Sean McVay’s offense with Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, Josh Reynolds and Van Jefferson is almost unfair.
On the flip side, Goff is heading back to the Lions. It’s likely that the Rams had to part with more picks in order to make that happen. What his future looks like in Detroit remains to be seen, but it might not last long.
Update: Albert Breer followed up the news with details on why the Rams gave up so much. It has been confirmed that was due to Detroit taking on Goff’s massive contract.
Other teams offered the Lions '21 first-rounders for Matthew Stafford. Why is the Rams' haul so much greater? Detroit agreed to take on Jared Goff's contract, adding an NBA element to this trade.
Goff has $43M fully guaranteed (and $54.3M total) the next 2 years with NO offsets.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 31, 2021
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
2 scrubs trading teams
lol
Heck of a price to pay for a QB who has been in the league a long time and has not won a thing wow
playing for the Lions is just the same as playing for the Washington Generals. extremely hard to win there.
Rex Grossman made it to the super bowl and Trent Dilfer won a super bowl ring. Rings aren’t the metric by which people should be judged. There are 21 other starters on the team.
Absolutely agree. Other examples of teams sucking or not winning titles with good QBs: Archie Manning in NO, Steve Young in TB, Ryan Tanneyhill in Miami, Deshawn Watson in Houston, Warren Moon in Houston, Dan Fouts in SD, Phillip Rivers in SD. While you can’t win a ring without a good QB, you also need more than a QB to win. This is the reason I don’t believe the Patriots do any better this year with Brady. They had nothing on offense. He would have been alone. Stafford made the Rams a SB contender.
Spot on Gentlemen, believe me when I tell you it was not Rivers fault they didn’t win in San Diego nor is it his fault the Colts are not in the SB this year. About 1/3rd of the NFL are dump franchises led by ownership that is content to make money and has neither the desire nor skill sets to build elite teams.
It will be especially interesting to see how the Colts do next year without “couldn’t get it done Philip Rivers”. They went 7-9 the previous year without him, 11-5 with him. Yes they made some other good moves as well, but they lost their #1 RB, #2 receiver for the season in week 1. And TY Hilton was not healthy until the final 4 games.
21 other players indeed, and coaching/ownership/management matters a hell of a lot.
As a Seahawks fan I’m thrilled about this trade. Goff was inconsistent, but has more playoff experience than Stafford and the Rams will be down two first round picks and a third. We just poached a couple of their young coaches as well. I don’t really see how this makes them any better. From SI,
“In acquiring Matthew Stafford, Rams general manager Les Snead continued his quest to acquire as many stars as possible with little regard for depth or the future.”
Here’s two stats that no one may have guessed the way Stafford gets trashed.
2011-2020
Game-Winning Drives
Stafford 36
Wilson 31
Brees 30
Brady 22
Rodgers 20
4th Quarter Comebacks
Stafford 29
Wilson 24
Brees 21
Brady 19
Rodgers 14
LA is a dump, but read through this fox thread and see how several media creeps like Cowherd slam Detroit as a dump and the new head coach as a block head.
the Rams are in trouble, but the owners of that new empty stadium in LA are really in trouble. they want to WILL the team into a home super bowl in 2022, but somehow i don’t think either of these teams will visit a SB for a long time.
https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/matthew-stafford-jared-goff-quarterback-trade-los-angeles-rams-detroit-lions
And this will blow up in their face yet again. Snead’s doing everything in his power to show that he’s not an incompetent GM. Aggressive? Yes, but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) thought it was a good idea to break Goff off with a mega-contract in addition to all of the other extensions that were given out to players who are no longer on the team (Gurley, Cooks). Now he’s giving away multiple 1sts YET AGAIN for a 12-year vet who’s a Fantasy Football god (Statpadford) with an 0-3 postseason record and had to in order for a team to eat that albatross of a contract HE gave out. Snead is comedy gold!
don’t let Cowshit get you down …. he’s a douche.
Good points, the Rams had to do something at QB. Goff is a ham samich. I think Stafford will be a nice upgrade, but losing two 1st round picks is going to be a problem in the long run. Good for Stafford to probably be a fixture in the playoffs the next 3 to 5 years, but I really don’t a winner as the franchises go. The biggest loser here is Goff, no question about that.
Stafford will improve the Rams, but that price is ridiculous for a 33 year-old QB who has never won a playoff game.
In my view, the difference between a good QB & a great QB is what they do in the big games. Stafford, with 10+ years in the league, is 0-3 in such games. Enough said.
Agree with Tim S and Michael dude still has not won a thing and that’s a huge price to pay for that and at 33 he ain’t going to get any better.
The Rams got fleeced. This is as close to a Herschel Walker deal as I have ever seen if the Lions use the picks wisely.
The Rams sold out a few years ago, got excoriated by everyone, and made it to the Superbowl. I would say it was worth it. Now, they are going to sell out again while Aaron Donald is still All-World.