Michael Brockers’s Jared Goff Slight Makes Trade to Lions a Little Awkward

In Wednesday’s Hot Clicks: what Michael Brockers said after Jared Goff was dealt to the Lions, Shohei Ohtani’s monster home run and more.

They have some things to hash out

The Rams are reportedly expected to make two trades with the Lions once the new league year begins at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The big one will send Jared Goff to Detroit in exchange for Matthew Stafford. The other, reported Tuesday night, will deal Michael Brockers to the Lions. It might be a nice reunion, if not for a couple of things Brockers said recently about Goff.

Earlier this month, Brockers told TMZ that he thought the Rams were getting a quarterback who’s a step above their old one.

“Is it a level up?” Brockers said. “In my heart, deeply, just understanding what [Stafford] brings, it’s a level up [over Goff]. It’s a level up.”

A couple of days later, he appeared on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football and was asked about what he told TMZ. Brockers said the Stafford acquisition could be what turns the Rams into a championship team.

“I feel like just watching him over his career, seeing the comebacks that he’s had, seeing so much of the numbers that he’s had, we’re just expecting that to just do better when he comes to the Rams,” Brockers said. “We expect that to match well with what we do. We feel like with his move, this will be the turning point to where we can just win the big game.”

Now, those comments could certainly be viewed as a dig at Goff, but Brockers didn’t really say anything outrageous or directly negative about his old quarterback. Of course he’s going to talk up his new teammate over the guy he thought he wasn’t going to play with anymore, and Stafford is clearly the more accomplished quarterback. Brockers also, in that same Good Morning Football interview, praised Goff as someone who “knows how to get it done when the time is needed.”

“The Lions should be very happy with what they have,” he continued. “They got a guy with a lot of experience and knows how to get to the big game.”

Still, that “level up” quote has to sting a little bit, especially because the trade already made Goff feel disrespected.

“I’m just excited to be somewhere that I know wants me and appreciates me,” he told NFL.com’s Michael Silver back in January

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).