Forced to Exit Rams Within Seconds, Jared Goff Confirms How Dan Campbell’s 1st Phonecall Motivated Before Lions Move

Jared Goff was left for dead by the Rams in 2o21. The 2016 first-overall pick was cast aside for Matthew Stafford. Goff was traded off to a struggling Lions team, and many assumed his career was done for it, but Dan Campbell saw something different. Nearly four years later, Goff wrapped up the best season of his career and choked up when talking about his relationship with Campbell, after the Lions had beaten the Vikings to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC. “He’s been incredible. He’s breathed life into me from the moment I got here, and it’s been a lot of fun to win with him,” the QB said, visibly emotional. He had gone from an afterthought to a franchise leader and Campbell was the man behind the turnaround. In fact, it all started with a phone call from the HC to the player.

Jared Goff joins the Detroit Lions! No one, and I mean no one, expected the Lions to demand Goff in exchange for Matthew Stafford. While the team was elated by their move, Goff was not. His move? Isolation. As he recalls now, “It was a shock. It was your world getting flipped upside down all at once.”

At that time, GM Brad Holmes and HC Dan Campbell were continuously calling him, but Goff was not ready to pick up any calls. However, with the intervention of his agent, he answered the phone. And the next thing you know, Goff was entering the gridiron wearing blue.

Yep! One phone call convinced Jared Goff to join the Detroit Lions. Goff revealed his emotions from that time on the Glue Guys Podcast, “I get a phone call from Sean, a minute later, it’s on Twitter. I mean, not even 30 seconds later. Brad (Holmes) and Dan (Campbell) are calling me but I was getting a million phone calls. I was kind of like declining everything at that point. So, my agent texts me or is on the phone and he’s like ‘Brad’s trying to get a hold of you. Can you answer his call? He keeps getting sent to voicemail.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure, okay. Got it, okay.’

“And he’s on the phone like ‘Hey Jared, Jared’ he’s so excited, ‘Finally I got you. You know we’re so excited for you. We’re so excited to have you here, and then I can hear Dan, ‘Jared, I can’t wait to have you here. We’re so excited.'” And that was it! Those words, that enthusiasm, to have him in Detriot was enough to make Goff say yes.

He further recalled, “And then like right then it was like holy smokes. This is what you want. That feeling of like someone breathing life into you and telling you how excited they are to have you on their team and what an opportunity we have here to build this thing up from the ground and that right there is the moment I’ll never forget being like, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s f*cking go. I can be a part of this. If those two guys believe in me then that’s all I need.'”

The Lions were in a desperate place when the opportunity to land a Super Bowl QB came to their front door. Dan Campbell was only months into his first head coaching job and as such had little margin for error. He placed his trust in Goff’s talents that had seen him go toe-to-toe against Tom Brady just two years ago. But the results were not immediate.

Both Goff and Campbell suffered. Their first season together started with a 0–10–1 before they recorded their first win in Week 13. Still, a 3–13–1 record, did both of their reputations no good. The next season started miserably with the Lions sitting at 1-4 in late October, with Goff having a forgettable game in the latest defeat to the Cowboys. He had been responsible for four turnovers and the calls to bench him were mounting as Campbell called him into his office for a meeting.

Goff dreaded the worst. The fans had turned against him with boos ringing in his ears in home games. The decision to move on from him seemed inevitable, if harsh. But Campbell had other ideas and once again showed that his enthusiasm while courting Goff wasn’t just for show.

Top Comment by Lkleyrer

Yes! I wish we could clone him

Share your take

Debate

The head coach told him that the team would stick with him as their starting QB and Goff drew a sigh of relief. “Man, I’ve got to stop trying to do too much. I have to release that a little bit and just do my job, one play at a time. I’m just gonna do my job and not worry about the rest of it,” Goff told Campbell. His coach’s response? A smile with the calming words, “Jared, that’s all I’ve wanted you to do this whole time.”

The Lions lost four more times that season but won 8 eight games, to finish with 9-8, their first winning season since 2017. Next season, Goff led them to their first NFC Championship game in 32 years. The rise and resurrection of Goff and the Lions under Campbell has been remarkable. Although they fell in the divisional round to the Commanders last season, it was still a success with the team securing the first #1 seed in franchise history. As for Goff, he finished the season with 4,629 passing yards, 37 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, a passer rating of 111.8, and a completion percentage of 72.4%. His touchdowns, passer rating, and completion percentage all reached career highs. The boos? well replaced by the now popular “JA-RED GOFF! JA-RED GOFF!” chant, all thanks to the belief shown by Dan Campbell right from that phone call to that meeting in 2022.

As great of a story as it is, Goff didn’t want to go with the trade initially and neither did Stafford. Matthew Stafford, who joined the Rams, was not too happy with the trade. But the only reason he accepted the move was because Sean McVay wanted him. Stafford joined the Rams and led the squad to win the Super Bowl that year (2021).

But why did the Rams move from Goff in the first place?

Jared Goff’s poor performance led the Rams and Sean McVay to make the move

Although Goff led the Rams to Super Bowl LIII, he faded after that season. He became inconsistent with his performance, and the team was already spending a lot of money on him. Just in 2019, the team gave him a massive contract extension for $134 million/ 4-years. Within this, he had $110 million in guarantee, an NFL record for guaranteed money, broken by none other than Patrick Mahomes next year. Hence, no wonder the team wanted results.

The QB struggled for two straight years. He tossed 29 interceptions in his last two seasons in LA. After that, even HC Sean McVay and the front office didn’t like the idea of giving the QB another year as they began their search for a more mature quarterback.

The team pursued Matthew without informing Goff. The then 26-year-old QB was caught off guard as he revealed in the same podcast how Sean McVay called him at the last minute to inform him of the deal.

Fast forward to 2024, and Goff had an incredible season. He guided his team to a franchise-best 15-2 record, securing the NFC’s top seed for the second consecutive year. Goff has gone from an unwanted player at the Rams to the man who has opened up a championship window for the Lions.