Rams' Sean McVay responds to Dan Campbell claim about Jared Goff

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay carefully answered a question about Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell saying quarterback Jared Goff is better now than he was under McVay.

"I think Jared’s played at a really high level," McVay explained, as shared by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "I’ll tell you what though, when you watch what he did last year, he played great. And I think because he’s so conscientious, repetition is the mother of learning. The more you play, the more you learn." 

Goff famously served as McVay's quarterback with the Rams from 2017 through the 2020 season, but the relationship between the two reportedly went south not long before Los Angeles shipped the signal-caller to Detroit in the trade that landed the Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. That deal went quite well for McVay and company, as Stafford helped the Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI in February 2022.

Meanwhile, ESPN stats show Goff ended the 2022 season ranked fifth among qualified players with a 61.1 adjusted QBR, seventh with a 99.3 passer rating, sixth with 4,438 passing yards and tied for fifth with 29 touchdowns through the air. The Lions could soon sign Goff to a contract extension as they look to compete for more than just a playoff berth this coming campaign with the 28-year-old under center. 

In June 2022, McVay suggested he wished he handled the final weeks of Goff's tenure with the Rams differently. The coach praised his former QB1 during his most recent comments. 

"He played really good football here for us, really grateful for those things," McVay continued about Goff. "But I was really impressed with just the way that he led and the way that he ended up demonstrating a lot of the things that we want to embody, that mental toughness...I was really happy to see how well he did. I think that’s probably a fair assessment because he’s only getting better." 

While nobody can take McVay's Super Bowl ring away from him, one wonders if Goff will eventually prove to be the better long-term investment, especially if he guides the Lions to a title before he celebrates his 31st birthday a few Octobers from now.