Sean McVay won a Super Bowl last season with Matthew Stafford, but the Rams’ coach still laments a certain aspect of the trade that sent Stafford to Los Angeles.
McVay expressed regret for how he handled the situation with his quarterback at the time, former No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff.
“The one thing that hurt me is that I would never want anything to be misunderstood about my appreciation, my respect for Jared,” McVay said on the “Open Mike” podcast. “Was it a tough decision? Yes. Were there some things that I could’ve handled better in terms of the clarity provided for him? No doubt.”
In Jan. 2021, the Rams dealt Goff and a trio of draft picks to the Lions in a blockbuster trade that landed Stafford. In his first season out west, Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl; Goff, meanwhile, wallowed in Detroit, as the Lions finished 3-13-1.
Days before the Rams acquired Stafford, McVay and his soon-to-be quarterback happened to be vacationing at the same resort in Cabo. A few days after their respective vacations ended, Stafford had a new home.
“So all in all, biggest thing I regret, (not) being able to sit down, look (Goff) in the eye and be able to communicate kind of where we are, what we were going to try to do moving forward,” McVay said.
“… If I had it over again, what I would do is, before I had even gone to Cabo, when there was a possibility of, alright, if Matthew Stafford’s available, if there’s other quarterbacks available, that would be something that we would explore — you sit down with him, you look him in the eye, you tell him that instead of calling him and setting up a meeting where that was my intention when I got back from Cabo.”
McVay noted that the trade materialized in 24-36 hours, rather than the week-long span that he originally anticipated.
In four years under McVay, Goff was a two-time Pro Bowler and led the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance in 2019.
“I think the further we get away, the more appreciation that we’ll have for the great four years that we did have together, because there were a lot of really good times,” McVay said. “… And I wish I’d handled (the trade) better as a leader for him.”
