The Detroit Lions have undergone a major turnaround in recent seasons. When general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell took over, this bottom-barrel franchise found little success on the field. Having Jared Goff at quarterback has certainly helped.
In three short seasons, they have gone from bottom feeders to the top of the food chain. 3-13-1 in Year 1 and 9-8 in Year 2 led to a massive breakthrough in 2023.
The Lions are now legitimate contenders in the NFC. They held a double-digit lead against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game that they were unable to hold onto.
Despite that hiccup, this is a franchise on the right path to being a perennial contender. To ensure that occurs, they locked in several of their key contributors this offseason to long-term deals.
One of those players was Jared Goff. The two sides agreed to a four-year, $212 million deal that made him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.
It was a contract that he certainly earned with his performance on the field. In three seasons with Detroit, he has completed 66.5 percent of his passes for 12,258 yards with 78 touchdowns and 27 interceptions.
Despite that success, Jared Goff didn’t receive much praise in quarterback power rankings down over at Pro Football Network. Dakota Randall ranked 33 quarterbacks and the No. 1 pick from the 2016 NFL Draft inexplicably came in at No. 18.
“The Lions and their fans would tell you that Goff is one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football. We would strongly disagree.
Has Goff improved since his days with the Los Angeles Rams? Certainly. But he needs to be managed, and when he faces a great defense, he’s prone to complete meltdowns.
Goff deserves a ton of credit for turning himself into a quality NFL starter, but that doesn’t mean he’s great,” Randall wrote.
As Randall noted, Lions fans will tell you this list is wrong, and they would have a strong argument. Baker Mayfield, Kirk Cousins, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love are the five quarterbacks ahead of him.
A good debate could be had about Jared Goff being ranked ahead of all of those players. Turning 30 in October, he may not have the upside of Lawrence or Love but he has a longer track record currently.
He also has two playoff runs with more victories than Cousins has in his career and isn’t coming off a torn Achilles. Mayfield had a career year in 2023 but was on the cusp of not being a starter in the NFL any longer in 2022.
At the very least, Jared Goff should have been ranked in the top half of the NFL’s quarterbacks. Being doubted like that will only provide him and the Lions with more motivation.
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