Boy that Jared Goff scrutiny from Detroit Lions fans never stops does it? I get it. The Lions are at a point with Goff where they're more than likely about to spend a ton of money on him and I get that fans want to see the Car Fax report on him before their team signs the check over and gets the title. Is Goff a car? If he was, I think he'd be nice and reliable Honda Civic. I digress. 

I've been asked two different things lately. They're both related to the deep ball. The first one is whether or not he's throwing it. There are still people out there that think he can't and that he isn't. The second question is if he's secretly injured and that's why he's not throwing deep as of late. We're going to look into both of those things today. Let's jump into it. 

Is he throwing the deep ball? The answer is yes. But it also depends on what you consider the deep ball to be. If you think a 40 or 50-yard bomb is the definition of deep passing, then you're going to be sad because the number is low on both of those. But it's low for every quarterback because nobody is throwing the ball like that a lot. 

20 plus yards is really the going rate for a deep ball in the NFL. That is considered an explosive play. It's also important to note that the ball has to travel 20 or more yards before it gets to the receiver. We're not talking about yards after catch here. So is Goff doing that? The answer is yes. 

He's not doing it the most though and that's pretty normal. Its mostly because he doesn't have to. The Lions are a run first team and then they rely a lot on play action passing. Goff's 89 play action passing attempts is the fourth most in the NFL. So don't expect Dan Marino level stats out here. They also tend to be in the lead, so they don't have to throw deep to make up for time and things of nature. 

Goff has thrown 35 passes of 20 or more yards this season per FTN. That's tied for 15th in the NFL. Sam Howell has the most attempts with 61 if you're curious. How many of those 35 attempts has Goff competed? The answer is 18. That's the eight most completed passes of 20 or more air yards. 

Despite previous thoughts on Goff's throwing ability, he's actually one of the most accurate deep ball passers in the NFL right now. Goff has a deep ball completion percentage of 51.4%. That's sixth in the NFL among quarterbacks with 10 or more attempts. Brock Purdy has the best completion percentage with 55.3%. 

While only 51.4% of the passes are connecting, the accuracy is there for sure. FTN deemed 85.3% of Goff's passes with 20 or more air yards to be accurately thrown. That's the eighth best mark in the NFL among quarterbacks that have 10 or more attempts. Geno Smith is first with 97.6%. No shocker there. He was the NFL's most accurate deep passer last season too.

In total Goff has thrown for 554 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions on deep balls. That's third in yards, fifth in touchdowns and tied with a ton of guys at fifth in interceptions. 

Ok, so that's answered. Let's get to the conspiracy theory. Is Jared Goff secretly injured and that's why he's not throwing deep right now? The answer is a no, Goff is not currently playing hurt and he's still throwing deep. This coaching staff has demonstrated a much larger restraint against playing players while they're hurt than the previous staff did. That's not to say it never happens, but more often than not, the Lions have shown to be pretty precautious with their players these days. 

Goff has still been throwing the ball the same way he was earlier in the year. He did check down a lot more than usual in the previous two weeks before the Saints game, but that's because he was under a lot more pressure than he's usually been under. The Lions offensive line struggled in both of those games. Substantially more than any other point in the year outside of the Ravens game.

If it makes you feel better, he did not check down once on Sunday and per FTN, he had didn't throw any interception worthy passes for the fourth time this season. That doesn't mean he throws a lot. He averages less than one interception worthy pass a game.

The deep ball was there for Goff on Sunday. He competed a 48 yard pass to Sam LaPorta in that game. That ball traveled 33.8 air yards before it got to LaPorta. 

Lions Mailbag: An interesting defensive coordinator option appears

Welcome to the Week 14 edition of our Detroit Lions mailbag. The playoffs are on the horizon for the NFL and things are about to get real in December. We've got some great questions today. Let's jump into them. We'll start with everyone's favorite topic, the defense.  Yes. I know it's really hard to believe […]