What Does Lions Quarterback Jared Goff Need To Do To Be The Future?
Lions Quarterback Jared Goff has been nothing short of great to start the season, being fourth in the NFL in passing touchdowns and eighth in passing yards through the first five weeks. However, he put up a terrible game against the strongest defense the Lions have faced this season. So the biggest question is, does Goff have what it takes to be this team’s franchise quarterback? Let’s talk about the logistics of it all and if Goff has what it takes to take this team to the promise land.
What Goff Can Do To Stay The Lions Starter
Goff did not have a great season with the Lions in 2021-2022 until the Lions fired Anthony Lynn, where Goff then finally looked like a competent quarterback. He then went into this season with Ben Johnson calling the plays, and the year couldn’t have started better. Jared Goff opened up the first four weeks of the season being tied for most passing touchdowns and third most passing yards, also leading the Lions to have the highest-scoring offense. Then things just went downhill from there, in a shutout loss to the Patriots. Goff looked absolutely lost in that game when he finally had to face a strong defense.
If Goff can show that he can win games against a defense like that, instead of collapsing as he did, that would be a major step forward for the Lions to consider him a capable QB. The best way for Goff to prove he’s capable of leading this team to be contenders is to play out the rest of the season the way he played Weeks one through four. If Goff can keep that kind of production instead of what we saw against the Patriots, then that would mean he was able to lead the offense to its full potential. On the off chance he can do all of this then he may earn himself another year with the team.
The Logistics For The Lions
The first thing you have to think about if you’re the Lions is Goff’s ceiling for what he can bring to this team. If this is the peak of Goff’s ability, where he plays well unless it’s against an elite-level defense, then you want to try to find a guy that can win you those tough games. However, you also have to take into consideration the risk involved when trying to replace him, if that’s the route you go. If you take a guy in the draft and he doesn’t pan out you could set back the process many years, whereas if you stuck with Goff you knew he could at least be good enough to get you wins.
The fact of it though is the downfall of this team has been the defense. The entire defense won’t be fixed by only drafting rookies, you are going to have to sign some guys as well. After the season, with the trajectory the Lions are going in, you could shave off 21 million dollars for trading or cutting Goff and draft a rookie high to hopefully be the franchise guy. If you keep Goff though you can hope a guy like Will Anderson or Jalen Carter falls to you in the draft, and sign some starters that wouldn’t be as high quality but keep Goff for another year.
So these are all very tough decisions for the Lions that will likely have to be made in the offseason. The most likely case scenario is if Goff plays as he did through the first four weeks then you keep him around one more year at least and draft all defense. If he plays mediocre, however, against good teams, then it might be time to look for a guy who can be better and sign some pieces to fix the defense.
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