Rams legendary QB on Jared Goff: ‘No QB has played better over last 17 games’

Where the Los Angeles Rams gave up on Jared Goff too soon is probably a question that will linger in the community forever, with the major saving grace for Sean McVay and Les Snead being that the franchise did win a Super Bowl immediately after the trade for Matthew Stafford. However, two seasons later, Goff and the Detroit Lions seem primed for a legitimate playoff run at this point and could even earn the NFC’s number one seed if they keep up this pace.

One former Rams quarterback who seems to think that Goff is playing better than Stafford, and every other quarterback in the NFL, is Kurt Warner.

“You could argue, & I’m sure a lot of you will, no QB has played better over the last 17 games than Goff,” tweeted Warner on Thursday with a link to his breakdown of a recent Lions game.

It was 18 games ago that Goff threw two interceptions in 24-6 loss to the Cowboys, which makes for a reasonable cutoff point to highlight how much better the former Rams QB has played since then.

In the last 17 games, here are Jared Goff’s stats:

391-of-578 (67.6%), 4,473 yards, 29 TD, 4 INT, 104.5 passer rating, 7.74 Y/A, 8.34 adjusted Y/A, 2 rushing TDs, 3 fumbles

The Detroit Lions have gone 13-4 in that stretch and are currently at 5-1, tied for the best record in the conference. Goff deserves a lot of credit, as does head coach Dan Campbell, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, and general manager Brad Holmes, a longtime executive in the Rams organization who traded for Goff. Holmes helped put together one of the top offensive lines in the NFL and drafted star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown in the fourth round.

In Stafford’s last 17 regular season games, he has completed 65.6% of 597 pass attempts for 4,311 yards, 21 TD, 17 INT, 86.7 passer rating, 7.22 Y/A, 6.64 AY/A, 6 fumbles, and one rushing touchdown. The Rams have gone 7-10 in those games.

Before I’m accused of being a revisionist Goff apologist, I would have and still would trade Goff for Stafford 100 times out of 100.

But is Goff playing better than Stafford since the start of last season? You gotta give it to him. Goff has been to a Super Bowl already once before and lost. If he makes another and wins, he’ll have almost caught up to Kurt Warner.