We all watched it happen, and lots of us piled on. For Jared Goff, getting dumped by Sean McVay and the Rams had to feel like the worst twist of his journey under center. In hindsight, it might have been the best. Goff landed with the Lions and reclaimed his career and his standing in the game with the backing of Dan Campbell and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. A bridge quarterback he is not. Brad Holmes never viewed him as one in the first place.
When Goff was asked this summer what he's learned about himself over two years in Detroit, he smiled and said, "Oh, I could go for a while."
"I’ve learned that sometimes things happen to you that you think are bad and they’re not, and it turns out to be one of the greatest things ever," Goff said on Fox 2 Detroit. "I think you also learn that you’re a lot tougher than you may think you are and you can handle a lot more. And when bad times happen, just keep your head down and the good times will come. It just may take some time."
It took Goff 11 games to get his first win with the Lions; that he did with a walk-off touchdown against the Vikings in December of 2021. It took him two years to re-establish himself as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL; that he did with a superb 2022 season that he capped by throwing 324 passes (and counting!) without getting picked. And it will take him at least another year to do what only one Lions quarterback has done in the Super Bowl era: win a playoff game.
If Goff does that, he'll likely have a long-term extension with the Lions coming his way -- to buy all the drinks he'll never have to pay for in Detroit. In a recent interview with NBC Sports, Goff said the hurdles that come with playing in the NFL "can be a gift in some ways." Like the LA breakup that led him to Detroit, a California nightmare that dared him to dream bigger.
“It’s all about how you approach it," he said. "By no means am I a philosopher, or somebody’s who’s all-knowing. But I think ... coming into it optimistically and putting your head down every day, one day at a time, can only lead to positive results at some point. It may take 10 years. It may take two years. It is what it is.
“I’ve learned getting knocked down is one of the greatest things that can happen to you.”
He's mostly been a winner, but Goff has always been fueled by defeat. He said after helping the Rams reach the Super Bowl in the 2018 season only to get "embarrassed" by the Patriots that "a fire has been burning in me since then to get back there -- and that will never burn out until I'm done playing."
“I don’t care where I’m playing, who I’m playing for, I’m always going to want to get that feeling of winning it," Goff said. "That’s the good part about getting your ass kicked in the Super Bowl, is getting that feeling in your stomach to get back there.”
Who knows if or when he'll get there in Detroit. But the Lions look like a threat this season in the NFC, led by what should be one of the best offenses in the game. They are favorites in a division they haven't won in 30 years. It sounded fanciful at the time, but this is exactly what Goff put his mind to when he arrived here 30 months ago from Hollywood, where the sun always shines whether or not the football teams win.
"Being able to play in a sports town is special," Goff said then. "I know football is king here, and I plan to make it a winner."
He didn't stop there. He said he was motivated by getting kicked to the curb by the Rams, the team that had drafted him first overall and with whom he had recently signed a record-breaking extension: "You do feel that, a little bit of like, 'OK, let’s see what we can do now.'" Goff re-found his rhythm midway through his first season in Detroit after Johnson took over the team's passing attack and has a 101.0 rating over his last 22 games, one of the best marks in the NFL. Not for nothing, Matthew Stafford's rating over his last 22 games: 94.3.
Goff kept going. He said he was further motivated by his new opportunity, to win somewhere that's only known losing, "to be in a place that has wanted that for so long and hasn’t been able to get over the top."
"I plan to put us over the top," he said. "My job as quarterback of this team is to get to the playoffs, win multiple playoff games and win a championship."
Goff would be -- has been -- the first to tell you he hasn't done any of that yet. He was also the first to tell us he could, and now everyone's starting to listen.