Obviously, Jared Goff would prefer to have won Super Bowl LIII. But if he and the Rams had to lose to the Patriots, he’s grateful, in some ways, to have lost the way they did: “You score three points and you kind of get embarrassed.”
“Now you have this thing inside you of, ‘Man, I’ve gotten all the way there, how do I finish the job (next) time?’ That’s a fire that’s been burning in me since then to get back there,” Goff said on the most recent episode of The Pivot Podcast. “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 back there and get that feeling of winning it. I think 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.”
These days, Goff is playing in Detroit. He’s playing for the Lions, one of only four NFL teams to have never made the Super Bowl and maybe the most starved franchise in professional sports. A year after dumping Goff for the quarterback who couldn’t win in Detroit, the Rams won four times more playoff games in the span of a month than the Lions have won in the Super Bowl era. Goff and the Lions didn’t win a regular season game until December.
“As far as handling the transition, it was a challenge, but a challenge that I took on and was ready for,” said Goff. “And similarly with this whole team and what it’s been through over the last couple decades or however long it’s been since a playoff win, it’s a challenge that I embrace and that we all embrace here of turning this around. That opportunity that we have and that I have to take advantage of this is pretty special.”
The Lions were realistic about the road ahead last season as they embarked on a rebuild under a new GM and a new head coach. Along with Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell, Goff said he was prepared for “a lot of hard work, a lot of hard times potentially and a lot of turnover.” This season, they think they’re ready to gain ground. In Goff’s words, they’re ready “to make it happen.”
Make what happen?
“Our goal is firstly to win the division and then compete in the playoffs for a championship,” he said. “I know you say that around here and people are [shocked] but no, internally, that is our goal. We feel like we’ve put some pieces in place and have the coaches in place, we feel good about Brad obviously and everything that they’ve done in the offseason, but it’s time. It’s time to go.
“I think that if I’ve learned anything, you think you have time but you don’t. You think you got time, you think, ‘Oh, we’ll get another chance at this.’ No, we gotta go right now and we gotta go fast, and it starts right now in training camp.”
In what feels like his make-or-break season in Detroit, Goff is off to a solid start in camp. He’ll never have the arm of his predecessor, but he’s been more aggressive under new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, buoyed by an instant connection with new wide receiver DJ Chark. He’s looked more like the quarterback who made two Pro Bowls with the Rams and who thrived toward the end of last season when Johnson took over the passing game.
With weapons galore, a strong offensive line and a scheme that suits their quarterback, the Lions should have no trouble scoring points. To help the entire team turn the corner, Goff said he’s focused on “taking my game to the point where I can make others around me that much better.”
“Not just fitting in and doing my job, but how do I make DJ Chark better, how do I make TJ Hockenson better, how do I get those guys elevated? They’re already good players, but how do I make them all better in our system and better on our team? Being the guy they can go to with questions and being able to elevate their play as well as mine,” he said.
Holmes told Goff this offseason that he was going to upgrade the Lions’ receivers. He followed through by signing Chark and drafting Jameson Williams. But if there’s one player Goff is most excited about in Detroit’s offense, it might be running back D’Andre Swift.
“I was around Todd Gurley, Todd Gurley is as good as I’ve ever seen. Swift is on his way there,” said Goff, who watched Gurley put up two All-Pro seasons with the Rams and win Offensive Player of the Year in 2017. “He’s gotta have some success this year, but I saw the work he put in this offseason, bringing himself back in great shape. Physically, he looks different. He looks really good. And then mentally he’s all locked in.”
Goff said the Lions’ rushing attack “starts with Swift, for sure, and just getting the ball in his hands in space.”
“Man, that kid is special,” he said, “He’s special and he’s a home run hitter.”
And with the right breaks, maybe Goff and the Lions are headed for a special season.
“It feels like a different place, somewhere they care so much," Goff said of the transition from LA to Detroit. "But we gotta give them something to root for. That’s always been the thing around here and we know it.”
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