I think Jordan, who is a wonderful beat writer, has a great take on the 11 personnel podcast and in one of her articles.
In summary, Goff was given everything to be successful. McVay was frustrated that with a an amazing defense and an offense completely designed around Goff to succeed, it was still the 9th most inconsistent offense.
The defense appears to have become frustrated with the offense and with Goff, maybe even some of the offense.
McVay called out Goff because it was true and because he needed to show the rest of the team he was keeping everyone accountable. He did not want to lose the locker room.
When Wolford played and McVay was finally free after years of holding back he knew in that moment it was time to move on.
The window for the Superbowl is not something you waste and they needed to upgrade the QB.
The extension was a mistake, but they most likely assumed Goff would develop and he did not, instead defenses changed to stop him.
The way of doing things is unique as we have seen many first round picks given away, many rentals, many contract mistakes moved on from. We have a different philosophy than ever and I love it.
Out with Wade in with Staly, out with Talib and Peters and in with Ramsey, out with Gurley and in with Akers, out with Cooks in with Jefferson? Bold moves, move on from mistakes no matter how hard they hurt, adjust quickly and go for it.
My take is that a desire to make a change was brewing for years, and exploded when Goff broke his thumb. My suspicion is that McVay was frustrated because they literally designed an offense that McVay hated, just to help Goff succeed and he still had moments of failure. My guess is after years of deferring and coddling Goff, McVay was done when Goff argued with him about starting Wolford. My guess is that the connections between Snead and Holmes led to discussions immediately. The connections between McVay and Stafford also seemed to be in the works.
Jan 14 announcement that Detroit is hiring Holmes. In his interview they discussed moving Stafford. Holmes was the one who picked Goff over Wentz.
Jan 16 is when McVay was vague about Goff's future
Jan 26 Snead says Goff is their QB "at this moment"
Jan 30 the trade is agreed to
Prior to Jan 14, McVay had changed his tone with Goff. This was most likely a combination of trying to motivate, trying to keep the locker room, and being frustrated. Nothing before the January 16th moment was seen as really immature however. There was some discussion about McVay calling out Goff in regards to turnovers, but no one was saying he blew it and has to go etc over that comment. The real controversy came last month.
Two days before McVay makes the comment, Holmes is hired to be the GM of Detroit and tasked with making a trade involving Stafford. It would be silly to think no discussion was happening at that point within the Rams Front Office. So by Jan 16, I am guessing a possible framework already existed. Not details or agreements, but knowledge that Holmes liked Goff still and would want to take him in exchange for Stafford. It was also known that Stafford's first choice was the Rams.
10 days later, Snead makes his famous comment, this is 4 days before the trade is finalized. At this point, Snead knows if they want to do it they can do it, the question becomes how much are they willing to pay. Snead knows they can and will outbid everyone else at this point and so in his mind it is happening.
4 days later the deal is finalized.
I was upset with the comments because I thought they would hurt our bargaining power, but if a general deal was in place, and conversations were already happening, then this was not an issue. Snead's and McVay's comments did not change Holmes view of Goff. In fact Holmes must have known Goff's frustrations for years.
The poor treatment of Goff was the other thing I did not like as it seemed to lack class to say the least. In hindsight he was treated very well and just could not deliver. He was given a huge contract, he was given players and an offense completely designed around him, and he was given more than enough time. Perhaps the treatment of Goff by McVay was frustration after all that, but perhaps there is something to the theory that he was done and he was talking more to the rest of the locker room. Obviously his statements did not deter Stafford from wanting to come play for him.
Snead's aloof comment is tricky. If he says "He is our guy" while knowing the trade is imminent than that would be seen is disingenuous at best. Snead did not bad mouth Goff, he simply stated the facts best he could without tipping his hand or lying. I don't fault him as much for this anymore.
I still think things could have been handled a little better, but I also think they were not as bad as I originally thought and there are definitely other factors at play.
