Insane trade idea has the Lions trading Jared Goff away for a different NFC quarterback

Let’s all take a deep breath together for a second. My first thought was to rage on this as well because the discourse around Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff continues to be the most insane discourse in the league. There is no other good quarterback who puts up the numbers he does annually on a […]

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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Let’s all take a deep breath together for a second. My first thought was to rage on this as well because the discourse around Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff continues to be the most insane discourse in the league.

There is no other good quarterback who puts up the numbers he does annually on a winning team that gets disrespected more than him. Then, I saw this, and I had to take a day to collect my thoughts to write this.

97.1 The Ticket suggests the Lions would be much better off with Baker Mayfield than Jared Goff

Welp, there it is. 97.1 The Ticket’s Mike Valenti and Rico Beard discussed this week that the Lions would be a guaranteed Super Bowl contender with Mayfield over Goff.

“I wish Baker Mayfield was the quarterback of the Lions. Not that I have anything against Jared Goff. In fact, I’ve defended him against many of you hyenas, but I kept thinking last night, the lions would have a better chance to win the Super Bowl. In fact, I probably would have them favored to do so if Baker was their quarterback.” Valenti said.

“I thought it. I’m not going to lie. I kept thinking it. I woke up feeling the same way that if I had one drive to win a game with a 1:48 and one time out to win it, it would be Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Baker Mayfield. Rico, it’s back-to-back weeks. He’s done it. He’s got the most game-winning drives in the fourth quarter in the last two years of football. He’s got mobility, which I know gets people all rocked up locally. Feel like Baker Mayfield is so much better than people give him credit for.”

This led to a bunch of podcasters, TikTokers, and Twitter users discussing trade ideas on how the Lions could send Goff to the Bucs for Mayfield. Insanity ensued because of this.

Let’s talk about some of this stuff from The Ticket. For starters, the fourth-quarter comebacks thing is just wildly inaccurate. He has not led the league in fourth-quarter comebacks in the last two years. He had two comebacks last year and two this year. Mahomes had five in 2024 alone. Goff had four.

Goff has more than proved that when it comes to these late-game situations, you want him to have the ball. He has 12 fourth-quarter game-winning drives just since he got to Detroit in 2021. Mayfield has 12 in his entire career. This is recency bias of the highest order.

There is no doubt that Mayfield’s career turnaround has been awesome to see, but at this point, this is clearly about the obsession with mobility. Beard discussed how Mayfield gives the Lions an extra option on third down. Mayfield can move, but he isn’t Lamar Jackson. Plus, the mobility doesn’t always work out.

Mayfield ran on third down 23 times in 2024 and converted only 12 of those attempts into first downs. Ten of those came on third-and-4 or shorter. Goff attempted eight runs on third down in 2024, and he converted five of them. If he needs to do it, he can. The fact is that he rarely does so, given the way the Lions’ offense operates.

They’re a four-down team, and their goal is to either convert on third down or get it to third-and-short, so they can try to convert on fourth down. Mayfield, in this offense, doesn’t make a ton of sense. By the way, on fourth down, Goff completed 75% of his passes.

I’d also add that he completed 68% of his passes and threw for 13 touchdowns and no interceptions on third down last year. Mayfield threw six third-down interceptions in 2024. It’s cool that he can run, but if you want to convert and get maybe more out of it, Goff clearly shows he has that over Mayfield.

Goff is the guy in Detroit, and while Mayfield is also a good quarterback, there’s no improvement with him over Goff. The fact that he can get a little mobile at times doesn’t move the needle enough for the Lions to want him over Goff.

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