Sean McVay has said it before, and said it again on Wednesday: He could have, and should have, handled Jared Goff's departure from the Rams with more grace.
"He deserved better," McVay said.
McVay and the Rams decided to trade Goff after the 2020 season, just two years after he'd helped them reach the Super Bowl and signed a $134 million extension. The relationship between the coach and the quarterback had soured as Goff struggled to produce like he had in the past and as McVay made his frustrations with Goff public, both on the sidelines and in the media.
Goff could handle the criticism. What left him, in his own words, "extremely disappointed and upset" was that he never heard from McVay or the Rams between the end of the 2020 season and the moment he was traded. Not a phone call, a text, or any kind of heads-up from the coach with whom he'd spent four years of his career and who he'd helped win a playoff game, with a badly injured thumb, just a few weeks prior in Seattle.
McVay would later admit that "I wish there was better, clearer communication on my end." As the Rams prepare to square off with Goff and the Lions in the playoffs Sunday night, McVay said the situation taught him the importance of "handling every situation the way that you want to with perspective, respect, appreciation."
"The thing that I'll never run away from is mistakes that I've made in previous instances. When you look back on it, the gratitude for those four years, all the good memories that we had, and then when you end up making a change, that ended up being difficult," said McVay. "Could it have been handled better on my end? Absolutely, and I’ll never run away from that. But the further you get away from it, the more that you try to grow as a man, as a person, as the leader that you want to become.
"He deserved better than the way that it all went down. I'll acknowledge that. And I think he knows that, too. And I'm not afraid to admit those things. But I think we're all better, being able to look back on those things. And I do have more appreciation for him as time goes on."
Because of the way things ended, Goff made the unusual choice of insisting on an exit meeting with McVay on his way out the door. He said this year that after McVay "traded me on a phone call, I did want to talk to him face to face." Goff also wanted to know the why of the trade, "what I could do better and where to improve." He said this week he "got some questions off my chest."
"He was honest," Goff said of McVay. "It was a long conversation. There was a lot that came out of it. It was good. Got some clarity. Don’t know if I got all the clarity, but I got some.”
Asked Wednesday about their relationship, Goff said, "Sean and I are good. Obviously we had our differences there at the end, but he’s a great coach. He’s done a lot of great things and he’s a guy that taught me a lot."
Goff, 29, has come a long way since the trade. After a rocky start to his time with the Lions, he says he's been "playing the best ball of my career." The numbers back it up. Over the past two seasons, only Patrick Mahomes has thrown for more yards than Goff, and only Mahomes and Josh Allen have thrown more touchdowns. Goff is fifth in the NFL in passer rating (98.6) over this stretch.
Even McVay agrees that Goff, a two-time Pro Bowler with the Rams, has taken his game to new heights with the Lions, under Dan Campbell and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
"I think he played a really high level in the four years here with us, but I think he, just like anybody, has just continued to mature. You can see he’s got great ownership of what they’re doing. He’s got a lot of responsibility at the line of scrimmage, getting in and out of different packages. You can see that Ben and Dan give him a lot of leeway in terms of some of the audibles, but just a quarterback playing with a lot of confidence, has a great rapport with his skill players. ... All the things that you want to see from your quarterback and been really impressed," said McVay.
Goff tends to be guarded with the media, but his comments can ring true in hindsight. Following the trade, he said that he was looking forward to going "somewhere you’re believed in" because "as the guy that’s at arguably the most important position on the field, if you’re in a place that you’re not wanted and they want to move on from you, the feeling’s mutual."
“You don’t want to be in the wrong place," he said. "It became increasingly clear that was the case. [The trade] is something that I’m hopeful is going to be so good for my career."
It wasn't at first, at least by the outside impression. Goff struggled badly in the early stages of his first season with the Lions. He was 0-6 heading into his first rematch with the Rams, who were Super Bowl-bound with Matthew Stafford. But even then, Goff said he was encouraged to be in an offense that gave him more freedom, where he was "trying different things, doing things that I hadn’t done in the past." The offense would take off when Campbell put Johnson in charge of the passing game.
"The confidence never leaves," Goff said at the time. "I feel great. Obviously 0-6 is tough and it’s hard to come back every day, but it’s all I know -- putting my head down, going to work and finding a way to win.
"And I know this: I’ve been through this twice now. My rookie year and then my freshman year at Cal we weren’t very good, either. But the reward on the other side of this is always worth it and it always tastes better when you’re going through tough times like we are now."
It will taste even better with a win Sunday night.