The Detroit Lions are not liable to move on from Jared Goff as the starting quarterback anytime incredibly soon, but the team needs a quality backup signal-caller and a potential alternative to Goff if he can’t get Detroit over the Super Bowl hump in the next year or two.
Ben Solak of ESPN authored a trade pitch flipping a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Indianapolis Colts in return for quarterback Anthony Richardson and a seventh-rounder in 2028.
“Backup quarterback has been an issue for the Lions, as Hendon Hooker and Kyle Allen have not been enough to stop the team from yanking Teddy Bridgewater away from high school coaching in Florida,” Solak wrote Wednesday, May 27.
“General manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell tend to like quarterbacks with bigger bodies, so Richardson is a good fit,” he continued. “Campbell is an elite motivator who might help light a new fire under Richardson, either as a backup who prepares the right way or as a spot starter in the event of a Jared Goff injury.”
Jared Goff Facing Pressure to Win Big With Lions Sooner Than Later
GettyDetroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff.
Goff will play next season at 32 years old and is under contract in Detroit through the 2028 campaign via a four-year deal worth $212 million.
He has spent the past five years with the Lions and started all 82 regular-season games in which he has played. Goff also has three Pro Bowl appearances over his Detroit tenure and has led the franchise to two NFC North Division titles, two playoff berths and has a 2-2 postseason record with the Lions. He even finished fifth in MVP voting in 2024.
All told, Goff is 90-60-1 as a starter and has started one Super Bowl, which came after the 2018-19 campaign. He has tallied 39,622 passing yards, 256 TDs and 102 INTs on 65 percent passing over the course of his 10-year career.
Goff’s resumé doesn’t read like one from which a contending team would choose to move on while he’s still at, or close, to the best version of his professional self. That said, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculated in April that the team might do exactly that.
“When you are knocking softly on the door every year, there is a fatigue that sets in,” Florio said. “At some point, the fanbase will say, ‘If we’re ever going to get the thing we’re trying to get, we have to upgrade — someway, somehow.’ And no quarterback is immune from that. At some point, you’ve got to deliver.”
Anthony Richardson Needs Fresh Start After Falling Out of Favor in Indianapolis
GettyQuarterback Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts.
Richardson’s play has been a far cry from the type of delivery Florio referenced, as the former No. 4 overall pick in 2023 lost his job permanently to Daniel Jones ahead of last season after the team benched Richardson for a series of games in 2024 due to poor play.
From a physical standpoint, Richardson has an elite and unteachable skill set replete with high-end arm talent and an ability to make explosive plays with his legs. However, he has struggled with several other parts of the game as well as injury issues, which have limited his experience to just 17 games played and 15 starts as a pro.
Richardson is entering the fourth and final year of his $34 million rookie contract and will be a free agent next spring. The Colts gave him permission to seek a trade as far back as the NFL Combine in late February, though no deal has materialized in the three months since. Richardson will play next season at just 24 years old.
Lions Urged to Trade Draft Pick for $34 Million Jared Goff Successor