A massive trade took place on Saturday night, with news breaking that the Detroit Lions were sending QB Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for a package that included QB Jared Goff, as well as two first-round picks and a third-round pick.
This is a package that is massively bigger than we expected in a Stafford trade, but it makes sense that the Rams had to pay up to get their guy considering the major salary dump that Detroit took on with Goff, who is still owed $43 million in guaranteed money over the rest of his contract.
For Washington fans, it is a bummer that they were unable to land Stafford, but everyone should be okay not sending that many draft picks away in order to get him. However, a report from ESPN’s Josina Anderson shows that Washington’s offer actually might have been better than what Detroit ended up taking.
League source gives opinion on #Lions decision to take the #Rams deal for Matthew Stafford: "The Rams were screwed with a bad contract on (Jared) Goff and the #Lions helped them and don't even get a good pick this year. The Washington offer was better."
— IG: JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) January 31, 2021
The keyword here is ‘better.’ That doesn’t mean that Washington offered more draft picks than the Rams did, but it’s believed that the package that was sent from D.C. included more immediate help for the Lions, rather than the package to rebuild with. My interpretation is that Washington probably offered their first-round pick this year, as well as a player that could help Detroit turn things around.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what Washington offered, because Stafford is in LA. Now we can turn our focus on Deshaun Watson and feel comfortable that Ron Rivera is doing everything he can to land a big fish in D.C.
