At his best with the Rams, Jared Goff was a two-time Pro Bowler who helped his team reach the Super Bowl. Dan Campbell says he's a better quarterback with the Lions -- and Goff would agree.
"I think as you get older and more mature in the league, that happens," Goff said Tuesday as the Lions kicked off minicamp. "I'd certainly say so. I said that a handful of times last year, that I was playing the best football of my career, and I plan to continue doing that."
Statistically speaking, Goff was one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL and one of the three best in the NFC last season. He made the third Pro Bowl of his career (albeit as an alternate) after finishing seventh in the league with a 99.3 passer rating, sandwiched between Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. He had the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the NFL.
And now, as Goff enters year three with the Lions, Campbell says the eight-year vet "has gotten very comfortable with what we want to do." The former first overall pick has come a long way since getting dumped by Sean McVay and the Rams just two years after they signed him to a $134 million extension. Goff arrived in Detroit as a cast-off, a contractual necessity in the Matthew Stafford trade, and has re-cast himself as an asset.
"Everybody knows what he came from, and that wasn’t the easiest thing," Campbell said. "You get traded, you’re on another team, ‘What’s going on? I thought I was playing pretty good, maybe I’m not. Is that the perception?'"
It was on the outside. On the inside, Brad Holmes and the Lions believed in Goff. They thought they could resurrect the quarterback who posted back to back 100.0-passer-rating seasons in LA, before things fell apart between Goff and McVay. It wasn't pretty to start. Goff struggled in the first half of his first season in Detroit, in an offense bereft of weapons. His rating over his first nine games with the Lions (84.0) was worse than in his final two seasons with the Rams (88.1).
Then Campbell took over play-calling and put future offensive coordinator Ben Johnson in charge of the passing game, and Johnson immediately gave Goff a larger voice in the design of Detroit's offense. And then Holmes upgraded Goff's supporting cast last offseason. His rating over his last 22 games with the Lions (100.9) represents one of the best marks in the NFL.
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"What you're seeing is a guy who just put his head down and went back to work and tried to improve on what he could, and now his confidence has really grown," said Campbell. "And along the way he has matured as a quarterback. He is a better quarterback than he was there, in my opinion, because he can do more things. He is mentally on it.
"We are lightyears ahead of where he was two years ago when we walked in and just started teaching him protections. He has a real good grasp of what we are doing, where the issues are, where the problems are, and that is something we really wanted him to get good at and he wanted to get good at. He has worked at it and he has improved, so that helps you.”
Goff and Johnson, one of the hottest coaches in the industry, are constantly swapping ideas. Their constant back-and-forth has allowed Goff to suggest offensive concepts to Johnson, and for Johnson to implement them where he sees fit. (Or to shoot them down entirely, Goff will tell you with a smile.) Goff also has more freedom at the line of scrimmage with the Lions than he had with the Rams to diagnose the defense and attack it accordingly.
"We ask him to do a lot more, in my opinion, than what they were actually doing out there," said Campbell. "They had a lot of pretty good pieces out there as well, as we know, damn good defense, all of those things. But I know from speaking with him and then watching him the last two years, I just feel like we put a lot of things on him, where I am not so sure that was ultimately what they were doing.”
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Goff talked a lot last season about the Lions giving him ownership of their offense, which finished fourth in the NFL. He said Tuesday that he likes "knowing what’s going on, obviously, and being able to take control of that is super important." He's been getting extra work in this regard through OTA's and minicamp with Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow on the sidelines as he rests his toe.
"I’ve had enough experience where I can get them some things fixed and not totally rely on Frank," said Goff, adding that he did this to a "lesser" degree with the Rams. "As you grow through the league, like anything else, you end up doing more of it."
Two years ago, it looked like Goff's best days were behind him. There were cries for Campbell to bench him midway through his first season in Detroit. Now he's a candidate for an extension with the Lions. Holmes said last month that the club has "had dialogue with (Goff's) agent" about a new deal. He's signed through 2024 with cap hits of about $31 million.
Goff doesn't seem to be in a rush to get anything done. He said Tuesday that talks haven't gone any further. Asked if he wants to sign an extension before the start of this season, he said, "I have no idea on when or how I want to get any of that done. That is not up to me.”
The Lions, for their part, might prefer to wait and see how Goff performs in 2023. They're in no rush themselves. But their faith in Goff is clear and has been from the start. Now it's paying off.
“The quarterback and head coach have to be tied to one another," Campbell said. "You want to get off on the right foot. You want to make sure there is a trust there, there is a bond. It has to be earned. You can’t just say it. It is going to take time. And here we are in year three and I very much believe he trusts me. He trusts what we are doing and I trust him. That’s a big part of it."
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