Icon: enlarge
Matthew Stafford goes to Los Angeles
Photo:
Scott W. Grau / Icon Sportswire / imago images / Icon SMI
According to US media reports, the NFL teams Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions are swapping their quarterbacks.
Accordingly, Lions star player Matthew Stafford moves to LA, in return Jared Goff and several draft picks come to Detroit.
Such barter deals are not uncommon in the US professional leagues.
The circumstances with this deal, however, are already: For the first time in the draft era, two number-one picks swap teams.
After their college careers, both players were selected first in the Draft, the talent exchange in US sports.
US media write of a "blockbuster trade".
Official confirmation from the teams is still pending.
The Rams indicated with a tweet to the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Clayton Kershaw that the move was perfect.
"Did you hear from an old friend today," the Rams wrote.
Kershaw has been friends with Stafford since childhood.
The Rams shouldn't have been the only team interested in Stafford.
The San Francisco 49ers have also been linked to the 32-year-old in media reports.
Not a single playoff win with Detroit
Stafford is considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Nevertheless, the Lions last reached the playoffs with him in 2016.
After the past season, in which the Lions only won five of 16 games, Stafford is said to have pushed for a change.
He couldn't win a single playoff game in Detroit.
Goff is also considered a great talent, with him the Rams even made it into the Super Bowl 2019. Nevertheless, there should have been tensions between head coach Sean McVay and his quarterback.
Despite great ambitions, the Rams missed the playoffs after their Super Bowl defeat the following year.
That year they failed in the Divisional Round at the Green Bay Packers.
Jared Goff in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots in February 2019, the Rams lost 3:13
Photo: John Bazemore / AP
It wasn't until 2019 that Goff signed a new contract for a rumored four years and $ 134 million.
Players take their contracts with them when they are transferred to the new team.
Accordingly, the sum could have been a deterrent in view of Goff's long only average performance.
Draft picks additionally
In order to exchange the 26-year-old for Stafford, according to media reports, the Rams had to add two first-round picks in the 2022 and 2023 drafts and a third round pick in this year's draft.
This is reported by the AP news agency, among others.
Accordingly, the Rams are betting everything on their new quarterback for the coming years;
In doing so, they are foregoing the most promising college players of the coming years.
Negotiating draft picks in the NFL transfer system is comparable to transfer fees in football.
The "blockbuster trade" might not have been the last this year.
The Houston Texans superstar, quarterback Deshaun Watson, also wants to leave his team due to hopeless Super Bowl opportunities, according to media reports.
For him, NFL teams would likely have to put together an even bigger and more valuable package than the Rams did for Stafford.
Icon: The mirror
hba / dpa / sid / AP
