The NFL isn’t a patient league. It’s very much a what have you done for me lately kind of league.
The two Pro Bowl quarterbacks squaring off in Sunday night’s NFL regular season finale in Detroit are two great examples of that reality.
Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 2016, took the Rams to a Super Bowl in 2019, but was eventually traded to Detroit two years later where he’s since revitalized his career and become an MVP candidate, leading Detroit to a 14-2 record.
Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold, the third pick in the 2018 draft by the New York Jets, was cast aside by the Jets and spent time in Carolina and San Francisco before his revitalization in Minnesota this year where he’s a Pro Bowler for the first time, setting career highs in every major passing category while leading the Vikings to a similar 14-2 mark.
“I think seeing Sam have the success that he’s having, he deserves it,” Goff said. “He’s a guy that kind of got, I don’t know, I mean he’ll never say it, but he got the short end of the stick in New York and in Carolina, and now he’s in a place with a lot of things around him that help him succeed.
“That’s every quarterback. That’s not a slight by any means. That’s every good quarterback in our league. And when you get a team that’s running an offense around you and running an offense that’s tailored for your skills, good things tend to happen, especially when you’re a talented player like he is.”
Baker Mayfield is another great example. Taken No. 1 overall by Cleveland in 2018, he was eventually replaced and spent a year in Carolina and with the Los Angeles Rams before settling in in Tampa Bay and having back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons with a career-high 39 touchdowns and a 107.6 passer rating this year.
Goff admitted teams don’t have much patience these days, especially at the quarterback position, and he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon. It’s why he’s taken a lot of joy in watching a player like Darnold have the year he’s had.
“He’s certainly making a lot of people look foolish,” Goff said of Darnold.
Goff joked this week he wished Darnold was doing it in a different division other than the NFC North but loves watching players get a chance to succeed, much like the opportunity he’s had to do so in Detroit.
