Jared Goff‘s NFL journey has climbed high peaks and dipped in low valleys. The late upswing resulted in a $212 million, four-year extension with the Detroit Lions.
It’s not the first big-money deal the former No. 1 overall pick has signed in his eight-year career. He inked an extension with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019 which set the quarterback market. Two seasons later, the Rams wanted out of the deal and shipped him to Detroit as an afterthought in the Matthew Stafford trade.
After that experience, Goff said Thursday that his main priority in the new deal was security, which included a no-trade clause that allows him to control his future.
“It was mostly security. I think you can go back and forth on the numbers and whatnot, and that wasn’t really the thing that was ever something I was extremely conferenced with,” Goff told reporters. “It was the security and the no-trade clause and all that stuff, knowing that all that was in there. Feeling secure and then knowing that I can now put that behind me and be excited about what’s to come.”
After taking the Rams to a Super Bowl, Goff saw his relationship with Sean McVay sour, and L.A. traded the QB. Since moving to Detroit in 2021, Goff has experienced a three-win first season, a Pro Bowl campaign in 2022, and helped the Lions win their first division title in more than 30 years in 2023. For Goff, the contract is the culmination of digging himself out of the low points of his career.