USA TODAY Sports
Just over two years ago, Sean McVay and Jared Goff took the Rams to a conference championship and an appearance at the Super Bowl LIII.
A few months later, in June 2019, McVay said he expected Goff to be “stuck with me for a long time”.
Los Angeles tried to ensure that by signing the quarterback with an extension that linked him to the club until 2024, before the start of the 2019 season.
But now the Rams have agreed to send Goff to the Lions as part of an agreement to acquire Matthew Stafford. And Goff talked about being confused about how quickly his relationship with the Rams went sour.
Until the exchange becomes official at the start of the new league year, McVay cannot think about acquiring Stafford. But at his news conference on Thursday, McVay was asked what has changed in Goff in the past 18 months.
“You know, I don’t know if a lot has really changed,” said McVay. “I mean, there are so many things that have happened since then. I think what I would say that I have learned in recent years is that things change every day and you probably want to be careful when making general statements when you cannot predict the future. “
McVay noticed how he liked Goff for the time they spent together and what they accomplished – including that trip to Super Bowl LIII. And the coach tried to counter the perception that LA made Goff a scapegoat for his offensive issues.
“I think the unfair narrative is that part of our drop in production is exclusively in the quarterback,” said McVay. “That is definitely not true. I think I certainly have a big hand in that. I have to be able to look in the mirror and recognize and be able to evolve, improve and take responsibility for it.
“I will not escape the guilt that is deserved on my side. But what I think is important is that the narrative [that] it becomes, ‘Oh, this is the way out of why the offense was not what it was’ – this is unfair to Jared. And I think it’s disrespectful of what he’s done in the past four years. “
Still, Goff is the one leaving the city in favor of a replacement at Stafford, whom McVay hopes will be able to create more explosive moves.
As for McVay’s relationship with Goff, the coach said that he and the quarterback had “good conversations” and noted that he could have been better for Goff in some cases.
He will have a chance to show what he learned from Stafford in 2021.