“We have a quarterback.”
Those were the first words from Detroit Lions team president Rod Wood after he was asked why the Lions didn’t pursue Deshaun Watson. It wasn’t that the price was likely too high for a rebuilding team. It wasn’t the off-field concerns—a topic Wood specifically said he didn’t want to discuss—or the bad publicity. Wood, knowingly or not, threw his full support behind Jared Goff in that moment.
Of course, Wood is not the man in charge of personnel decisions. Ever since the Lions shuffled around their front office with the addition of general manager Brad Holmes, assistant general manager Ray Agnew, and do-it-all assistant Chris Spielman, Wood has been moved mostly—if not completely—to the business side of the franchise.