Brad Holmes echoed what he said two years ago, that Jared Goff isn't just a placeholder for the Lions. Only now, people might believe him. Wrapping up the Lions' season Tuesday, Holmes left no doubt that Goff is QB1 for Detroit now and moving forward.
"It’s a lot easier to get worse at quarterback than to get better at quarterback in this league," said Holmes, beginning his third year as Lions GM. "What Jared has done this year, he captained the ship of a top-three offense and he was top 10 statistically in most passing categories. You know how we approach the draft. We’re never going to turn down a good football player. So if there’s a football player that we really love, we’re going to make sure that every stone is unturned. But I do think that Jared has proven to everybody that he is the starting quarterback for us."
The Lions have two first-round picks in a draft where several quarterbacks look like first-round talents, headlined by Alabama's Bryce Young. That includes No. 6 overall from the Rams, courtesy of the trade that brought Goff here in the first place. At the time, Goff was viewed as a salary dump who boosted the Lions' return, a penalty for better draft capital. But Holmes, who had a big hand in the Rams' decision to draft Goff first overall in 2016 as the team's director of college scouting, never viewed it that way himself. He said a big piece of the trade for Detroit was "being able to acquire Jared."
Holmes thought Goff could help the Lions win. In the right environment, he thought the Lions could rediscover the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback who once took his team to the Super Bowl. Goff spent most of this season proving Holmes right.
"I was always confident in him because I’ve been with him since he was drafted, so I know how resilient and mentally tough he is," Holmes said. "A lot of it was me knowing all the success he had in LA that I think was kind of forgotten about when he got here. And he was put in a really tough situation. I don’t know how many QB’s (were) in that situation that he was in last year. We didn’t really have the weapons around him, Dan (Campbell) had to make a very tough decision on the staff and (Goff) stayed the course. Knowing what he’s made of, that’s why I kept faith and confidence."
Goff's leading receiver last season was a rookie fourth-round pick who was a nobody for the first two months. His offensive coordinator was a lame duck for the final two months after Campbell stripped him of play-calling duties. It wasn't until late in the season when Amon-Ra St. Brown caught fire and then-tight ends coach Ben Johnson took over the passing game that Goff looked like a legitimate starting quarterback. He finished with a flourish and picked up this season right where he left off.
Goff and Johnson were on the same page from the start. Free agent signings DJ Chark and Josh Reynolds joined St. Brown in the receiving corps, not to mention 12th overall pick Jameson Williams who debuted late in the season. Detroit's offensive line allowed the second lowest sack rate in the NFL. And Goff finished seventh in the league in passer rating (99.3), sandwiched between Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, the leader of an offense that finished fourth in the league in yards.
"I respect the hell out of him because I told him, ‘Look, we’ll hold up our end of the bargain. We gotta put you in the right situation with the right pieces around you and stability on offense,'" said Holmes. "I feel like we did that, and he held up his end of the bargain. So I felt like it worked out. I didn’t have a doubt or a waver. I never really deemed him as a bridge, I think everyone else did (based on) the recency bias of what he had to go through last year."
Goff, 28, is signed through 2024 with cap hits of about $31 million each of the next two seasons. (He'll rank 11th in QB cap hits in 2023.) Asked about making a decision on Goff this offseason, Holmes said, "I don't really know what the decision is." That is, there isn't one to make. Goff is the Lions' guy. And Goff is happy to call the Lions his team, especially after leading them to an 8-2 finish after a 1-6 start.
"It’s been a lot of fun this year," he said Monday. "I said (last month) I felt like I was playing my best football, and I still feel that way. Surrounded by a lot of great players, a lot of great coaches and have been able to have some good success this year personally.
"But more than anything, being able to finish with a winning record as the QB and leader of this team and being able to come back from 3-13 (last season), granted, we didn’t make the playoffs, but the progress feels incredible and where we are heading into the offseason feels really good."
Only four quarterbacks threw more touchdowns than Goff this season. All of them were Pro Bowlers. There's a case to be made that Goff was the biggest snub at his position, not that it matters. He also has a case for Comeback Player of the Year. Hell, after throwing 15 touchdowns and zero interceptions over his final nine games and nearly leading Detroit to one of the unlikeliest playoff berths in NFL history, Goff was on the betting radar for MVP.
Two years after the trade, he and the Lions are just getting started.
"The culture is here, the core is here, the foundation is built," Goff said. "Now it’s just about people falling into place and doing their jobs consistently, and our expectations and standards continuing to rise."
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