There's a story out that the Lions like what they're seeing from Jared Goff. New coach Dan Campbell saying nice things about Goff's command in the huddle and the pretty spiral he throws and whatnot. Might be enough to make you think Detroit is anticipating good things this season. It seems unlikely.
I look at the breadth of moves the Lions made this offseason and don't see a huge effort to be competitive. They replaced Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones with Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman. They made no moves to upgrade a terrible defense beyond adding Michael Brockers, in what was a salary dump by the Rams. Similar to them trading away Goff, giving up multiple first-round picks to acquire Matthew Stafford, yes, but just as importantly to free themselves of the huge contract they gave Goff a couple of years ago.
Since signing that deal, and taking the Rams to a Super Bowl, Goff's play has slipped noticeably. It's particularly true in terms of taking care of the football. He's actually been bad in that area for three years running.
Over the past three seasons, Goff has thrown 41 interceptions and fumbled 29 times. Not all of those fumbles were lost, but regardless -- he's been a little loose with the football. Among all quarterbacks to start at least 20 games over the past three years, that's 6 more combined interceptions and fumbles than anyone else. That's probably why Sean McVay had had enough. Matthew Stafford, in a similar number of games, has about half as many interceptions and fumbles in that timeframe.
| QUARTERBACK INTERCEPTIONS/FUMBLES, 2018-2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Int | Fum | Int/Fum |
| Jared Goff | 47 | 41 | 29 | 70 |
| Baker Mayfield | 46 | 43 | 21 | 64 |
| Carson Wentz | 39 | 29 | 35 | 64 |
| Jameis Winston | 31 | 44 | 19 | 63 |
| Josh Allen | 44 | 31 | 31 | 62 |
| Sam Darnold | 38 | 39 | 20 | 59 |
| Derek Carr | 48 | 27 | 30 | 57 |
| Matt Ryan | 47 | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| Kirk Cousins | 47 | 29 | 28 | 57 |
| Philip Rivers | 48 | 43 | 12 | 55 |
| Deshaun Watson | 47 | 28 | 27 | 55 |
| Daniel Jones | 27 | 22 | 29 | 51 |
| Russell Wilson | 48 | 25 | 25 | 50 |
| Lamar Jackson | 46 | 18 | 31 | 49 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 32 | 33 | 15 | 48 |
| Mitchell Trubisky | 39 | 30 | 17 | 47 |
| Dak Prescott | 37 | 23 | 21 | 44 |
| Andy Dalton | 35 | 33 | 11 | 44 |
| Tom Brady | 48 | 31 | 12 | 43 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 45 | 23 | 17 | 40 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 33 | 27 | 13 | 40 |
| Matthew Stafford | 40 | 26 | 13 | 39 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 39 | 22 | 17 | 39 |
| Kyler Murray | 32 | 24 | 14 | 38 |
| Cam Newton | 31 | 24 | 14 | 38 |
| Case Keenum | 28 | 20 | 17 | 37 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 25 | 21 | 16 | 37 |
| Josh Rosen | 20 | 19 | 11 | 30 |
| Drew Brees | 38 | 15 | 11 | 26 |
| Joe Flacco | 22 | 14 | 12 | 26 |
| Eli Manning | 20 | 16 | 10 | 26 |
| Teddy Bridgewater | 29 | 14 | 7 | 21 |
Goff at some point played well enough to earn that big contract, and he has had his team in the playoffs three times, including that Super Bowl run. That counts for something.
But it's awfully unlikely he'll play well enough in Detroit, given what's around him, that the Lions won't be cutting bait as soon as it's financially doable. This is a team assembled to lose games and have some nice draft picks in 2022. Goff is as likely to be a veteran backup a year or two from now as in the midst of a career revival.
--Andy Richardson