Rams didn’t let Jared Goff reach his full potential, says Lions head coach

Did Sean McVay do enough to help Jared Goff reach his full potential? It doesn’t sound like it, if you listen to what Lions head coach Dan Campbell had to say about Goff’s development over the past two years in Detroit.

Campbell spoke to the media this week about Goff’s development and said that he is “lightyears ahead of where he was two years ago” and that he is “a better quarterback than he was (on the L.A. Rams).” Campbell said that the Lions were the ones that had to teach him protections and that he can now do more things in Detroit than he was doing on the Rams.

The Rams traded Goff, two first round picks, and a third round pick to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford in January of 2021, then won the Super Bowl one year later. Goff was seen as a “throw-in” for the trade and it was speculated that the Rams had to include an extra first round pick in the deal just to get Detroit to agree to take on his contract, which had yet to even kick in at that point.

Over Goff’s five seasons with the Rams, he made two Pro Bowls and reached the Super Bowl in his third season, but conflict with how Sean McVay wanted to run L.A.’s offense seemed to be the driving factor in the decision to trade for Stafford in 2021. Goff was putting up decent stats and the Rams were usually winning, however he was essentially benched at the end of 2020 and may not have won his job back from John Wolford in the playoffs if not for an injury against the Seattle Seahawks. The L.A. Rams won that game but lost the next week to the Packers and that was Goff’s final game with McVay.

It seemed as though Goff was in danger of losing his job with the Lions as he had some intense struggles in the first season. Then in 2022, Goff had 11 touchdowns in the first four games and finished with 18 touchdowns and only one interception over Detroit’s final 11 games of the season. The Lions barely missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record and Goff could even be in line for an extension soon as Detroit has opted to not draft a quarterback replacement in either of the last two years.

Whether Jared Goff is actually better on the Lions than he was on the Rams has yet to be proven. He is coming off of a season that keeps his starting career alive, but now expectations are higher in Detroit than they’ve perhaps ever been before. With Aaron Rodgers out of the NFC North, it’s time for Goff and the Lions to reach the playoffs, if not win the division.

What McVay has to say about Campbell’s comments then, that would be interesting.