SUBSCRIBER ONLY

Lions QB Jared Goff puts winning for Detroit over Rams revenge

The former Rams quarterback says there is no extra motivation going into Sunday’s wild-card game against his old team

THOUSAND OAKS — There probably aren’t many opposing quarterbacks that receive a kind word of encouragement from Aaron Donald the week of a game, but Jared Goff is the exception.

On Tuesday night, Donald texted his former Rams teammate ahead of Sunday’s meeting against Goff and the Detroit Lions in the opening round of the playoffs.

“I just told him that I was proud of him, obviously what they’ve been accomplishing, what he’s been doing,” the Rams’ star defensive tackle said Thursday. “He was here and helped us do some great things. And then to go to Detroit, help build that back to where they at today and all the success they’ve been having, definitely this season, just proud of him, just wanted to let him know that.”

The NFC wild-card matchup between the Rams and their former quarterback has brought a lot of recent history into focus this week.

The Rams traded up to select Goff with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL draft. When head coach Aaron Donald joined the organization a year later, the Rams and Goff began to hit their stride. They made the playoffs after the 2017 season, then made a run to the Super Bowl the following season as Goff threw for 4,688 yards and 32 touchdowns.

That offseason, Goff signed a long-term, lucrative contract extension with the Rams. But as the offense stalled over the next couple of years, the relationship between Goff and McVay became strained.

The coach criticized Goff in his press conference following a Week 12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in 2020 in which the quarterback turned the ball over three times. Then after Goff returned from thumb surgery for the first round of the playoffs, McVay opted to start John Wolford in the wild-card round, citing the need to install a game plan for the undrafted free agent rather than wait and hope Goff would be ready later in the week.

After the season was over, McVay and Rams general manager Les Snead did not commit to Goff being the starting quarterback for the team moving forward. By the end of January, an agreement had been reached to trade Goff and a haul of draft picks to the Lions for Matthew Stafford.

Despite his history with the Rams, Goff told reporters in Detroit this week there is no extra motivation for him heading into this playoff game.

“I think I so badly want to win this game for this city and win a playoff game this city that hasn’t had one in so long,” Goff said Wednesday. “We got a home playoff game for the first time in so long and that’s so much more important than anything personally for me.”

The Stafford-Goff trade has evolved into one of the few win-win exchanges in sports. The Rams won Super Bowl LVI with Stafford the following year, while Goff has lifted the Lions to new heights, earning their first NFC North title this season.

Yes, the head-butting between McVay and Goff spilled out into public, whether it be remarks to the media or disagreements on the sideline during games. But McVay said this week that, with some distance from the situation, his appreciation for his four years with Goff has grown.

“When you look back on it, the gratitude for those four years, all the good memories that we had,” McVay said. “And then when you end up making a change that ended up being difficult and could it have been handled better on my end? Absolutely. I’ll never run away from that. But the further you get away from it, the more that you try to grow as a man, as a person, as the leader that you want to become.

“He deserved better than the way that it all went down. I’ll acknowledge that. I think he knows that too. I’m not afraid to admit to those things, but I think we’re all better being able to look back on those things and I do have more appreciation for him as time goes on.”

“Sean and I are good,” Goff said this week. “I think he’s a great coach. Obviously, we had our differences there at the end but he’s a great coach, done a lot of great things and he’s a guy that taught me a lot.”