There is no lack of motivation for any of the players participating in the NFL’s Championship weekend, but it may be difficult to find a player who is more determined to succeed and help his team win a Super Bowl than Jared Goff.
The arc of Goff’s career has been rather dramatic. He was the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, and coming out of Quarterback U. – California – the Rams had strong expectations that Goff would emulate Aaron Rodgers (another Cal quarterback) and become one of the game’s elite signal callers. For a point in time, it looked like Goff would immediately meet expectations, but he gradually fell apart thanks to a stretch of poor playoff performances.
Jared Goff's underwhelming NFL playoff performances with Rams
After a strange rookie campaign, Jared Goff started to pay off in a big way in 2017 when the Rams went 11-5 and won the NFC West. But they fell flat in the postseason, dropping a 26-13 decision at home to the Atlanta Falcons. The Dirty Birds had finished third in the NFC South that year and had not demonstrated the ability to win big games. Goff was badly outplayed in that game by Matt Ryan, and Sean McVay was left with the thought that something was missing from LA's offense.
While the Rams would show quite a bit of improvement and focus the following year when they went a league-best 13-3 and made it to the Super Bowl, Los Angeles underwhelmed in the title game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. There was something quite timid about LA's game plan as the Patriots pulled out a 13-3 victory.
Goff’s greatest ability in his career – both with the Rams and the Detroit Lions – has been his accuracy. However, against New England, Goff completed just 19 of 38 passes for 229 yards with an interception. He was sacked four times, and it was almost as if McVay expected some kind of disaster to unfold throughout the game.
Goff was on borrowed time in Los Angeles after that his putrid showing in the Super Bowl, as McVay clearly thought that Goff was no longer capable of leading his team to a Super Bowl victory. Goff remained with the Rams through 2020, but he was traded prior to the 2021 season to the Lions as part of the package for Matthew Stafford.
Rams win Super Bowl 56 without Jared Goff
When the Rams made it to the Super Bowl in 2021 with Stafford under center, they played a far more aggressive and effective offensive game and outlasted the Cincinnati Bengals to pick up a 23-20 victory. Stafford did not play a perfect game by any means, but he was far more aggressive in his Super Bowl opportunity than Goff was. He completed 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
While Stafford and the Rams had their Super Bowl, Goff and the Lions went 3-13-1 in 2021 and settled in the NFC North basement. It was a major comedown for Goff, but as bad as things were for the team, he had an encouraging statistical season. Goff completed 67.2 percent of his passes and had a 19-8 TD-interception ratio.
The Lions would make many changes, but head coach Dan Campbell believed in Goff. He did not think that Detroit got the worst of the trade with the Rams, and he was more than happy to go forward with Goff under center.
The quarterback has responded brilliantly the past two seasons, and now they are getting ready to play in the NFC Championship Game against a powerhouse San Francisco 49ers team. The Lions are seven-point underdogs, but they don’t have to take a back seat to San Francisco at the quarterback position. Brock Purdy is an overachiever, but he looked quite shaky in the Niners’ 24-21 triumph over the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round.
Jared Goff's playoff success with the Lions
Goff has been laser-focused in Detroit’s playoff wins over the Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both games were basically toss-ups between teams of equal value, but Goff was better than Stafford in the Wild Card round and better than Baker Mayfield in the Divisional round.
“He has been motivated to the highest level ever since Stafford won a Super Bowl with the Rams,” said one AFC executive. “The feeling around the league was that he was not capable of winning a Super Bowl and that’s why he was traded. The player they traded him for won a Super Bowl in his first year. If you don’t think he will leave everything on the field, you’re wrong. That’s all that matters to him.”
The Lions have a huge mountain to climb against the Niners, and it’s not all about the quarterback. San Fran has the best running back in the league in Christian McCaffrey, and if Deebo Samuel (shoulder) can play, they will have another game-changing X-factor on the field. The San Francisco defense is far better than what the Lions have to offer.
But if Samuel can’t play, and Goff and the Detroit offense can get off to a decent start, there is a legitimate chance for an upset. Jared Goff is fighting to even the score after seeing the team that drafted him win a Super Bowl without him.
He should not be counted out.
Bill Belichick is going through the ringer, and it’s not right
Despite all the speculation throughout the season, it was still somewhat shocking when Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft parted ways after the regular season.
Belichick won six Super Bowls with the Patriots and led the team to the postseason 18 times, and he is generally considered to be the best coach in the history of the NFL. Arguments can be made for Don Shula, the all-time winningest coach in NFL history, Vince Lombardi and even Tom Landry, but there is no doubt that Belichick is among the greatest ever to prepare a football team to play.
The consistency in his approach was a huge factor in the Patriots dominating the AFC East on a year-in, year-out basis – along with the presence of a pretty good quarterback in Tom Brady. Belichick’s ability to pit his team’s strengths against an opponent’s weaknesses was a huge key in his coaching success.
Belichick wants to continue coaching, even as he nears his 72nd birthday in April. All reports indicate that he is motivated to bypass Shula and become the winningest coach in NFL history. But there’s something that stinks about the process of trying to get another head coaching job. Belichick is going through the interview process as if he is some hot offensive coordinator making the rounds after his team made the playoffs.
Belichick has had two interviews with the Falcons, but he does not have the job yet. Presumably, there are other interested teams.
There is a lack of dignity to forcing this all-time great to “try out” for any NFL head coaching job. There is no way Shula, Lombardi, or Landry ever would have allowed themselves to go through this process.
Belichick wants to win a Super Bowl without Brady and hold the all-time coaching victory record. But having to go through this process is not a fitting way to begin writing the last chapter of his coaching career.
This and that…
The Ravens believe that Lamar Jackson should win the MVP award this year, and they are not wrong. He has proven himself as an accurate passer, completing 307 of 457 passes for 3,678 yards and a 24-7 TD-interception ratio. Jackson completed 67.2 percent of his passes while losing none of his running skill, as he gained 821 rushing yards for an average of 5.5 yards per carry, while also adding five more touchdowns to his tally. His playoff performances won't count in the MVP voting, but racking up two passing TDs and two more as a runner vs. the Houston Texans in their Divisional round matchup can't hurt the perception that he is the league Most Valuable Player.
The Chicago Bears have hired Shane Waldron to serve as their new offensive coordinator. Waldron comes over from the Seattle Seahawks, where he helped a retread like Geno Smith perform at the highest level of his career. If the Bears stick with Justin Fields at quarterback in 2024, the impact of Waldron should be positive.
However, the Bears have the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and they are studying the potential top overall pick in Caleb Williams. If the Bears go that route, the pressure on Waldron will increase dramatically, because the expectation is that the number one overall pick (presumably Williams) would give the team an immediate boost – much like the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft in C.J. Stroud did for the Texans this season. The belief among Chicago’s management is that Waldron can handle either situation, but the heat will be on him from the beginning one way or another.
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