Raise your hand if you see it coming. After last night’s news about the Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford would welcome a trade in the Rams, we are now feeling that Los Angeles is buying around its interlocutor. Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic reports that the Rams have held “exploratory conversations with various teams” regarding Jared Goff trade.
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From a financial perspective, negotiating Goff is easier said than done. How Rodrigue explains that the Rams would be left with $ 22.2 million in dead money if it were to change the old general selection. However, a trade would be more enjoyable if it occurred after June 1, as the Rams would only be left with 6.8 MM of dead money (plus about $ 15.4 million with dead capitalization in 2022). As our own Sam Robinson pointed out last night, releasing Goff is unrealistic either. The quarterback’s $ 134 million quarterback contract guarantees come through 2022 and the organization has no easy contract until 2023. While Stafford has base salaries of only 9.5MM and 12.5MM in the next two years, Goff’s contract certainly complicates any potential exchange.
After winning Pro Bowl nodes in his second and second seasons (including a 2018 campaign where he helped guide the Rams to Super Bowl loss), Goff seems to have spread over the past two years. He threw 16 maximum interceptions in the run in 2019 and his last 20 touchdowns in 2020 were the lowest total since his rookie year (when he only started seven games). For comparison, Stafford has thrown fewer than 20 touchdowns once since 2011, and that came during a 2019 campaign where he compiled 19 passing touchdowns in just eight games.
As Sam pointed out last night, Rams ’head coach Sean McVay and GM The Snead they have recently made comments indicating that Goff’s condition is less than certain. Rodrigue also points out that there is a connection between the Rams and Lions main offices; new Lions GM Brad Holmes previously he served as director of university scouting for the Rams. Now, this does not mean that any operation by Goff necessarily involves the Lions; given Detroit’s apparent desire to restart, it doesn’t seem like Goff fits into any hypothetical deal between Stafford and Los Angeles. Still, the connection between the front offices is too obvious to ignore.
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