The Rams didn’t trade Jared Goff because he was a bad quarterback. They just saw Matthew Stafford as an upgrade, someone who could put them over the top as a Super Bowl contender.
And sure enough, he did exactly that, leading the Rams to a championship in his first season in 2021.
Buy Rams TicketsGoff has gone on to excel with the Lions, leading them to a 9-8 record last season and he just helped them beat the defending champion Chiefs in Week 1. He also extended his interception-less streak to 359 straight passes, the third-most all-time. A bad quarterback doesn’t pull that off.
But going back to the Stafford vs. Goff debate, there’s a reason the Rams saw the veteran Stafford as a better option. He’s a more creative quarterback who works better out of structure, often making plays that aren’t necessarily part of the play call.
Benjamin Solak of The Ringer shared a perfect example of what separates Stafford and Goff as quarterbacks. He found two almost identical plays by each quarterback, one from Thursday’s game between the Lions and Chiefs, and one from the Rams’ playoff win over the Bucs during their Super Bowl run.
On the play by Goff Thursday night, he hit Josh Reynolds on a dig route for a first-down conversion. The tight end Sam LaPorta held the underneath coverage and Amon-Ra St. Brown ran a deep route up the seam, and while the play was called for Reynolds, St. Brown was wide open for a deep touchdown.
As Solak notes, the play was designed to go to Reynolds, but had Goff seen St. Brown, it would’ve been an easy completion for a big gain.
On the Stafford play, it was almost the same exact thing. Except, instead of Stafford throwing the dig like he was supposed to, he noticed Cooper Kupp running deep down the seam and he uncorked a bomb to set up what would be the game-winning field goal in the divisional round of the playoffs.
There was a play last night where Amon-Ra St. Brown was wide open for a touchdown. I talked about:
🔹why he was so wide open
🔹why Jared Goff didn't throw him the ball
🔹what Matthew Stafford once did with a very similar look (in the playoffs) (to win the game) pic.twitter.com/hkoXiHX5Vh— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) September 8, 2023
They’re both perfectly fine plays by the two quarterbacks, but one was obviously better than the other. And that shows the difference between Stafford and Goff. Stafford recognized an opportunity to create a big play by not following his progressions perfectly, while Goff took what the play was designed to do.
Had Goff been in Stafford’s situation, the Rams may not have won that game and went on to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
