More than two years have passed since the Los Angeles Rams traded quarterback Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions in a blockbuster.
It may not have seemed like it at first, but the change in scenery may have been the best thing for Goff. The 28-year-old quarterback found his footing late in 2022, nearly leading Detroit to the playoffs while posting great numbers in the latter half of the season. As the Lions look to assert themselves as contenders going forward, Goff seems to be the guy under center.
But is he better now than he was with the Rams, the team he led to a Super Bowl LIII appearance? For Lions head coach Dan Campbell, the answer to that question is a resounding "yes."
"He hung in there and I think what you're seeing is a guy who just put his head down and worked on what he could, tried to improve on what he could, and now his confidence is really, it has grown, and along the way, he's matured as a quarterback," Campbell said Tuesday. "I mean, he's a better quarterback than he was there [with the Rams] in my opinion because he can do more things. He's mentally on it.
"We've come light years ahead of where he was two years ago, teaching him protections. He's got a real good grasp of what we're doing, where the issues are, where the problems are and that's something that we really wanted him to get good at and he wanted to get good at and he's worked at it, and he's improved."
A main reason why Campbell believes Goff is better now than he was in L.A. is because he has more responsibility. The Rams' offense under head coach Sean McVay aims to take pressure off the quarterback, while the Lions' asks more of the signal-caller in comparison. Some quarterbacks thrive with that level of control though, and Campbell believes Goff is one of them.
"We ask him to do a lot more in my opinion than what [the Rams] were actually doing out there," Campbell said. "They had a lot of pretty good pieces out there as well as we know. Damn good defense. All those things, but I just feel like, I know from speaking with him and watching him really over the last two years, I just feel like ... we put a lot of things on him where I'm not so sure that was ultimately what they were doing."
Goff and the Rams may have gone their separate ways, but it appears to have been for the best. Goff is now the quarterback of the future for an up-and-coming team, while the Rams won Super Bowl LVI in large part thanks to trading Goff to bring in Matthew Stafford. (NOTE; I was really struggling with how to end this article so feel free to change if something else works better)
You can follow Jonathan Alfano on Twitter @JonAlfano_News
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