As the NFL world looks ahead to the 2025 season, a new season of Netflix’s Quarterback is offering an introspective look back at one of the league’s most pivotal trades in recent memory — Jared Goff’s move from the Los Angeles Rams to the Detroit Lions.
In a preview clip aired on The Pat McAfee Show, Goff opens up about the 2021 blockbuster trade that sent him, along with two first-round picks and a third-rounder, to Detroit in exchange for Matthew Stafford. While the deal helped the Rams capture a Super Bowl in Stafford’s first season, Goff’s journey in Detroit has turned out to be one of the league’s most compelling success stories.
Goff Makes Claim That The Los Angeles Rams Expected Detroit Purgatory
Goff acknowledged that many viewed the trade as a demotion: “A lot of people saw it like I was being cast away or I was being sent (for) my career to die. And I think a lot of people in my former organization may have thought that, as well,” he said. “For me, I saw it as, what an incredible opportunity to be somewhere that has never won and has never been to the top of the mountain and how incredible would it be if we’re able to build this thing into a winner.”
He’s done just that. In 2024, Goff led the Lions to a 15-2 record, threw for 4,629 yards and a career-high 37 touchdowns, and helped secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Now signed through 2028 on a $212 million extension, he’s proven the doubters wrong — and shown that both sides of the trade ultimately got what they needed.
“To Be Truly Wanted”
Goff revealed the emotional toll of the trade and how the initial conversations with Lions head coach Dan Campbell and GM Brad Holmes restored his confidence.
“It kind of brought me from this moment of picking up the pieces to reinvigorated with this energy of, ‘Oh, this is what it feels like to truly be wanted and to have these guys behind you,’” Goff said. “I hadn’t felt that in quite some time.”
Holmes, who had a hand in drafting Goff as a Rams executive, echoed the sentiment:
“When we got the opportunity to land him, it was a no-brainer,” Holmes said. “I knew how resilient he was and just thought that he’d be a good fit for the journey we were about to take.”
Quarterback returns July 8 on Netflix with the latest season following Goff, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, and Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons.
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