Getty Jared Goff on the sidelines during a 2021 Lions game vs. Arizona.
The Detroit Lions have seen things come into focus a bit for 2022 by virtue of their strong finish to the 2021 season, and one player who seems to have cemented his present and future is quarterback Jared Goff.
Goff has played well in leading the Lions to a couple of wins late in the season, and as a result, his future figures to be more secure in Detroit than it seemed before the middle of the season. That’s not exactly how one NFL analyst sees it, however.
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Recently, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell put together an Insider piece which featured some potential quarterback dominos across the league this offseason. In a potential scenario where Aaron Rodgers was traded to Denver, San Francisco traded Jimmy Garoppolo to Carolina, the Panthers traded Sam Darnold to New Orleans and Ryan Fitzpatrick signed a one-year deal with Pittsburgh, the Lions were projected to cut Goff, who would then sign on as Joe Burrow’s backup in Cincinnati.
In terms of why, Barnwell offered that the Lions could use the over $10 million they would save on Goff elsewhere, especially given Dan Campbell had publicly pushed Goff to play better months ago. Additionally, Barnwell hypothesized the team would look to sign Teddy Bridgewater as a stop-gap for the future.
Goff had a rocky start in Detroit in 2021 thanks to injuries and an inconsistent team around him, but has played well down the stretch, so such a demotion would likely be a big blow to him for 2022. It’s tough to imagine someone wouldn’t want him to be a starter, so the fact he would have to sign as a backup seems a bit curious. Nevertheless, this is simply one potential projection of what a Goff release could look like for the Lions.
Why Lions Are Unlikely to Move on From Goff
This scenario has a lot to unpack, but from the outside, it seems pretty outlandish. While Campbell did publicly challenge Goff, that took place months ago, and the quarterback has played winning football for the Lions since. Additionally, cutting Goff would not only not save the Lions a ton of money, but it would open a gaping hole on the roster for 2022. With no elite quarterbacks to be taken near the top of the draft and the team likely to be shut out of a big name, this would force the Lions to roll the dice on drafting a quarterback while hoping he panned out immediately. By keeping Goff, the Lions would allow this player more time if they did select him with Goff entrenched as the starter.
Besides, as Week 15 showed, Goff could be trending upward in Detroit as a starter himself:
While many will dream of the Lions moving on from Goff, it doesn’t seem like it is going to happen. For that reason, this particular scenario should be taken with multiple grains of salt.
Goff Finishing 2021 Strong for Lions
In spite of all the struggles, Goff is finding a way to finish the 2021 season strong. Since Thanksgiving, Goff has been on relative fire as statistics go at quarterback. He’s thrown 9 touchdowns to just 2 interceptions while going off for 898 yards. Goff has also claimed elusive awards for a Lions quarterback such as NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors as well as FedEx Air Player of the Week award.
Perhaps better than that, Goff is comparing with some of the elite quarterbacks in the league in terms of QBR. Over the last four weeks, Goff is neck and neck with some obvious NFL studs of the game as MLive.com’s Kyle Meinke pointed out with a Tweet:
Since coming back from the oblique injury 4 weeks ago, Jared Goff has 9 TDs, 2 picks and a passer rating of 105.1.
The complete list of starting QBs with a better rating than Goff in that stretch:
Aaron Rodgers (121.4)
Matthew Stafford (116.2)
Russell Wilson (108.8)
For a player who many have accused of lacking talent, these statistics show that Goff could have his best days in front of him as a passer and might offer the Lions a lot in 2022. That’s perhaps the biggest reason his future should now be secure and not in question.
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