I suppose I must be begin with "no disrespect to Goff".
The thing is Stafford is just a different animal than Goff. Is he a better animal?
Depends on what you want. Sam Bradford was check down Charlie, a bit like Alex Smith had become over time. They both have high career completion percentages. On the other hand their ypa's are low. If that's what you want as an HC, fine. Goff was trending in that direction. Of course the debate is why? Some want to blame McVay and scheme. Others Goff. It is awfully hard to blame a scheme and coach whose offense is predicated on splash plays and whose WRs run a lot of choice routes at multiple levels, for a QB regularly choosing the short throw over a guy who might not be AS open, but by NFL standards IS open.
The Goff of 2017 and 2018 seems to have disappeared. We all noticed how he liked to throw the ball downfield. Then for some reason, the throws got shorter, the fumbles and INTs began to rise, and it never got better. While I just don't find it credible that McVay turned into John Robinson or Jeff Fisher, I also find it mysterious as to why Goff went the way he did.... but indeed he did.
So, from this sense Stafford is a different animal. Stronger arm. Insists on throwing downfield. An inherent gunslinger. But for a gunslinger he has a fairly low INT rate (given the team he was on, it wasn't bad at all).
Other than for some dope like Florio, you just don't hear any sportswriter, former GM media guy, former NFL QB media guy, or former NFL player media guy, not easily declare that Stafford is a whole different animal than Goff, who operates on a whole different level of competency.
As the local Rams beat writers and national guys like King noted, McVay knew exactly what he wanted in a QB; and that guy is Stafford. Will the Lions fans notice a difference? Hard to imagine otherwise. But Goff is not a flunky. He'll play OK and not embarrass them or himself. But will he be better than he was the last 2 years with the Rams? Pretty hard to be with the guys he'll have surrounding him.
