Timelining: LA Rams trade Goff + Picks for Stafford now reality

The King, the Lions, and the Rams

NBC Sports correspondent Peter King has a pretty good handle on NFL Rumors, and he indicated that the Detroit Lions have made significant traction on getting a deal done for Matthew Stafford. Speed favors the Lions in this one. Since Stafford seems to be the first quarterback to be dealt with, he would logically have attracted the greatest number of suitors. Right now, the cover charge is a minimum of a first-round pick.  While that may not have sounded like the Rams were in the running, it did not eliminate them.

Five teams shelling out a first-round pick. So how rapidly will this happen? Per King, the news of a trade ‘in principle’ can be forthcoming this week. Per NFL rules, no trade will be official until the start of the new NFL season. This year, that date is set for March 17, 2021, at 1:00 pm PT.

So pause a moment. If the LA Rams intended to land Stafford, they would need to offload Goff. I would have thought that the Detroit Lions’ new GM Brad Holmes, who came from a long-standing executive career with the LA Rams, would be very familiar with Goff’s upside.  But this was clearly the litmus test. If the Detroit Lions do not value Goff in a package for Stafford, then it’s about as bleak of a situation as it can become.

Surreal and unbelievable.

This opened the door to the worst-case scenario for the LA Rams. The Rams were competing with nearly 25 percent of the NFL for Stafford: Washington, Indianapolis, Carolina, New England, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  Per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Stafford’s first choice of his next team may not be the best offer that the Lions get.  Of course, in any bidding wars, the Rams are very light on salary and draft picks for ammunition.

But there was still that connection.  Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes knew Jared Goff as well as anyone on the Rams staff. If Goff was valued as I suspected, Goff would be treated as a salary dump to pump the Rams for as much in the deal as possible.  But the key to the Lions was to get Goff and ad many picks as possible.  Analysts would focus upon the Rams acquiring Stafford, and the Lions’ treasure trove of picks.  But for Holmes, he just traded for a six-year younger version of Stafford and landed two first-round picks and a third-round pick in the process.