Why Jared Goff is the key in the NFC

Is he good enough to lead the Detroit Lions to the Super Bowl? (Yes.)

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The best decisions in life aren’t driven by emotion. Nor made on a whim. There’s no instant gratification.

The long game’s at play, so you’re probably not jumping for joy in the moment.

When the Detroit Lions traded Matthew Stafford after 12 seasons, Jared Goff was assumed to be little more than collateral damage. For the Lions to get these two first-rounders and a third, they needed to take Goff’s contract off of the Rams’ hands. Quite obviously they’d bail at their first opportunity, draft a modern quarterback for these modern times and build like everyone builds. Goff was the stale box of Good & Plenty, right? If the boy genius himself — Sean McVay — no longer believes in you, nobody should.

Let’s not forget McVay started John Thomas Wolford, a fella employed by the AAF’s Arizona Hotshots one year prior, over the former No. 1 overall pick in the Rams’ 2020 wild card game.

This new regime was acutely aware that the acquisition of Goff would not light up the phone lines in the ticket office.

But that was the brilliance of the Lions’ long game.