Jared Goff nails the NFL’s biggest problem, and the Lions should probably take advantage of it
Jared Goff just nailed the NFL’s biggest quarterback problem. The Detroit Lions might also be one of the few teams perfectly positioned to take advantage of it.
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff sat down with ESPN’s Kevin Clark this past week, and something he said in that interview absolutely nailed a problem the NFL refuses to fix. The league has no patience with quarterbacks. Goff said it plainly: teams wait on guys for a year or two, and if they don’t produce right away, they move on. He also pointed to the media’s role in accelerating the cycle. And he’s right.
I’ve been saying this for years. If you’ve followed me on Twitter for the last 13 years covering the Lions and being around the NFL, you know my number one thing is that quarterback wins are not a real stat. I don’t say that to weaponize it or dispel whether a quarterback is good. I say it because quarterback wins and losses as a measuring stick are hurting the NFL. They’re hurting players. They’re hurting front offices. They’re hurting the growth of the league. GMs are getting fired because of it. Head coaches are getting fired because of it. Quarterbacks are getting moved on from way too fast because of it.
The cycle nobody can escape
Here’s the thing. It’s created this circle that feels impossible to get out of. You draft a quarterback. If he’s not good in Year 1, maybe you get a Year 2. If he’s not good in Year 2, the quarterback gets benched, the GM gets fired, the head coach gets fired. A new GM and head coach come in, they bring in a new quarterback, and we do the whole thing all over again.
Sometimes you get a quarterback who just comes out and gets it right away, but that’s pretty rare at this point. Look at the amount of quarterbacks who have been drafted. There are not a whole lot of guys just getting it immediately. These guys need time, and the NFL just refuses to give it to them.
Look at the examples. JJ McCarthy gets one year with the Minnesota Vikings. I didn’t think it was particularly that bad. It wasn’t great, but it was his first year as a starter, and that’s it. He’s branded a bad quarterback forever. Justin Fields got benched immediately. Zach Wilson got given up on fast. Dillon Gabriel got given up on fast. Anthony Richardson got given up on fast. Trey Lance, just see you later. Then he goes to the Los Angeles Chargers, and I thought he looked pretty good last year. Mac Jones, gone fast. Will Levis, already given up on.
Goff brought up Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield. Darnold got railroaded by the New York Jets. They did nothing for him. They didn’t improve the offensive line. They gave him no receiving help. He had nothing there. Then he bounces around, winds up in Minnesota, has a really good year, goes to Seattle, wins the Super Bowl. Sam Darnold in the right system, given time to learn how to play quarterback in this league, figured it out. Mayfield, same thing. Put him in the right system, give him some help, and he could figure it out.
Goff is proof of his own point
Goff himself is a good example. While he was good with the Rams, he’s been way better with the Lions because he’s in the right spot. They gave him time. They grew with him. When Goff got here, he was originally supposed to be a one-year rental, a bridge quarterback. But Detroit didn’t look at it like that. His first season with the Lions wasn’t so great. But you know what they did? They gave him time.
And the method of moving on from quarterbacks so fast does not work. There’s no proof of it working. The Vikings haven’t won a Super Bowl doing it this way. The Jets keep bringing different guys in, and it’s not working. The Colts moved on from Richardson, and it’s not working. It boils down to getting lucky, and sometimes you do. But even some of those lucky picks aren’t translating to championships. It’s not like Justin Herbert is winning a bunch of Super Bowls right now. We’re generally seeing the same teams over and over again, and it’s because they were built to be teams. They built around their quarterback. That’s what has been successful.
The Lions should take advantage of this
From a Lions point of view, it was cool bringing in Josh Dobbs, but I would like to see Detroit be the team that takes advantage of this problem. Someone has to do it at some point, because there are some decent quarterbacks out there who just need the right space to learn with the right guys.
I can’t think of a team with more right guys. The Lions have Mark Brunell as their quarterback coach, a former NFL quarterback. They’ve got Mike Kafka as their passing game coordinator, a former NFL quarterback and quarterback coach. They’ve got Drew Petzing as their offensive coordinator, a former quarterback coach. They have Bruce Gradkowski on the coaching staff, a former NFL quarterback. They have Marques Tuiasosopo on the coaching staff, a former NFL quarterback. And they have Goff, who is just a good guy to sit under the learning tree with.
It just makes all the sense in the world that this is the right spot for a young quarterback who needs more time. That’s why I’ve written all those articles about why the Lions should trade for Richardson or Levis. This is the best spot to come learn. I don’t know why Detroit doesn’t think about it like that. Maybe that’s a question I can ask Dan Campbell at some point. But Goff nailed it, and the Lions are sitting in a perfect position to prove him right.
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