When the Los Angeles Rams traded Jared Goff and a bevy of draft picks to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford, many NFL analysts were surprised.
NBC LA reporter Michael Duarte was no exception.
“I was definitely surprised, as I’m sure Jared Goff [was],” Duarte said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “From sources, [he] was a little blindsided by it. But I wasn’t surprised that the deal went down. I was more surprised by how quickly it came to fruition and went down. It seemed like less than 48 hours earlier, Detroit announced that Matthew Stafford was going to be available via trade, and before you could blink an eye, he had been traded to the Rams. So [I was] a little surprised more of the timing, not that the move happened itself.”
Once the Lions announced Stafford was available, Sean McVay turned on the tape.
“He liked his arm strength, liked his aggressiveness, liked his ability to be a little bit evasive; he’s a little bit more mobile than Jared Goff is,” Duarte explained. “As soon as he finished watching the tape, he called Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, and said, ‘I want Matthew Stafford’ and signed off on the deal. It got done.”