Detroit has become my favorite team to root for this year. All my friends laughed at me when I predicted they would go at best 10-7 but probably 9-8 and slip in as a wildcard. Had the defense not blown so many late game leads they would already be at 9 or 10 wins with a berth all but locked up.
Holmes will probably go edge with the Ram's pick and CB with theirs. Their team is really coming together fast. There is no way they dump Goff. Holmes ain't no fool. He was a Goff advocate before the Rams drafted him so he knows exactly what he has. Goff is still the guy that beat Mahomes in 2018 in that classic. He never had a losing season under McVay.
But now in Detroit, he's with a coach that built the offense around his skill set. He understands his role is to be a complimentary piece in the offense and does not have to be the be all and do all on that side of the ball. He showed in 2019 behind a very poor OL that he can carry the team when he has to. Holmes is going to move on from that? Get real, they have a franchise QB who is cheap right now. This year he's at $31M, next year $30.6M, and in 2024 $31.6M. For a franchise QB that isn't expensive. Only the media Goff haters are saying they will move on from Jared. Why would they? They built the team around him. He's actually in the top 5 or 6 QBs in the NFL this year. That's how good he's playing. His INTs have dropped once he got out of the McVay system and guess what? He doesn't need the HC in his ear until the last 15 seconds. That was strictly McVay's way of tearing him down saying I don't trust you to not break my system.
Now McVay thinks he has a new toy in Mayfield, and maybe he will have but not right now. Baker has to clean up a whole lot of things, which he can if he stays a year as Stafford's understudy. But Detroit is showing what the Rams lost because McVay wouldn't build around the QB that they had. 2018 showed he was capable of getting the team to the Super Bowl. But isn't it interesting that in 2019 they dismantled his solid OL and then blamed him when his play dropped off? Yet we see it again when Stafford is behind a bunch of backups and how important the OL is to the success of that franchise QB.
As I've watched Jared I've more than once wondered how things would have been different if McVay designed his offense around Goff's skills. What he did was dumb down the offense to a point no one could be successful. But had Sean taken the time to redesign his offense he would have had a quality starter. Maybe not elite but good enough to get to and win a Super Bowl. In 2018 he went head to head with the NFL's best QB and beat him. But that apparently meant nothing to McVay.
Sean is an elite HC there is no denying that. But he has his own flaws that I for one am not blind to. Yeah, he got Stafford who won the Super Bowl but after one year that is all in jeopardy with a window that looks to be closing fast. So yeah he has a new toy. I just hope he learned from Goff and structures his offense to suit Baker. If he does then Mayfield could have real long term success here. So far Baker has avoided some of Stafford's mistakes by forcing the ball. When a QB is rolling out the vision of the field is different as he is watching the defenders coming at him, the yard markers, and so he won't see the field completely. Yet Baker may have taken the sack rather than risk a turnover, which is something he might have done in Cleveland. That is viewed by most as a negative, but I saw it as a positive sign that maybe he's matured as a QB. I've never been a supporter of Mayfield, in fact, I've been very critical of him. But the guy on the field tonight was a more mature QB than the one that played in Cleveland. Contrast that with Murray who is the same limited QB now that he was as a rookie. Yeah to me little things matter because when added up they aren't little anymore.
