thependulumswings

Twelve NFL seasons ago Matthew Stafford roared in like the Lion he was.

And, now after 162 starts, 45,109 yards passing, and 282 TD’s the Rams hope he hasn’t turned into a lamb from all of the QB hits he’s taken as Lion with all of the misfits that did or did not block for him.

The Rams, as we are certain that you heard, shipped starting QB Jared Goff, two first-round picks, and one third-round pick to Detroit in a mega-deal for Stafford.

It’s a massive price for the Rams to pay.  The trade comes less than two years after Goff signed a massive four-year, $134 million contract with the Rams, which runs through 2024.

It’s noteworthy that Goff struggled in 2019 and 2020 after his first three seasons in the league that saw his star ascending.  In LA you’re only as good as your last act or two.  And director Sean McVay has seen enough.

It’s also noteworthy that Goff’s stats after five years in the league are so similar to Stafford’s that you’d swear you were watching one of those old Hollywood reruns.

For LA it’s the Super Bowl or bust.  And they’re betting big that Stafford has plenty of skill left in his 33-year-old body to give a command performance or two before the curtain comes down on their elite defense.  If they win one big one, maybe you could say the price was worth it.

Maybe.

Rarely in the NFL do you give up more people and picks to get fewer people and picks and get the better of the deal.  Rarely.

In Detroit, new Head Coach Dan Campbell roared in like the Lion that he now is at his very first press conference.  In LA they call it must-see TV.  The sound bites even include knee cap bites.

Campbell knows that Motor City is starved for a winner.  He also knows that he needs a lot more individual winners on his team than he has.

To create a winning culture out of a perennial losing one massive change is needed.  Ironically Stafford joined Detroit the same year, and played his first game ever, against a new head coach named Sean Payton in New Orleans in 2009.  Payton did just that, changing a perennially losing franchise into a winning one.

Head Coach Campbell just spent the last three seasons under Sean’s (Payton that is) wing.

We suspect that Campbell will be more than willing to change more spare parts out of Detroit for more new shiny ones.  It might almost look like an assembly line by the start of the 2021 season.

And, having more one’s and a three is a start to that start that few HCs get to tinker with.  And, what if, just what if, he can kick start Goff, too?

Rarely does the Lions organization come to mind when the word “savvy” is tossed about.

This time it should. And, maybe it’s LA like, but “bravo,” sounds about right, too.