Jared Goff recently got a nice nod from his peers, who voted him one of the top 10 quarterbacks and top 100 players in the NFL. But there's still a sense that Goff doesn't get the national respect he deserves coming off one of the best seasons of his career.
"I don’t know," Dan Campbell said Tuesday. "I know this, we have a lot better handle and feel of who he is here than a lot of people do on the outside because we get to see it every day. So if you’re asking me personally, no, I don’t think he gets enough. But by the same token, there’s a lot going on right now about us and him and it’s pretty positive."
Goff was indeed one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL last season, and arguably one of three best in the NFC. The stats spoke for themselves, led by the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the league. He was also seventh in passer rating, sixth in yards, tied for fifth in touchdowns and fourth in net yards per attempt.
It was just an all-around strong season for the 28-year-old quarterback, who quieted the critics who said he'd never be the same when he was kicked to the curb two years ago by Sean McVay and the Rams. But he didn't silence them. Goff still has his doubters, who continue to fuel him as he enters his third season with the Lions.
"You always want to find that edge someway, somehow. That’s a smaller edge for me," Goff said Tuesday. "I think I’ve got more personal ones that internally fire me up, but yeah, it’s always good to have the little chip on your shoulder that you want to prove people wrong.”
Of course, depends who those people are. Asked if thinks he gets enough respect from those on the outside, Goff said, "I don’t care."
"Don’t care. Don’t even know if I do or not," he said. "Try to win games for this team, that’s all.”
In a recent interview on the Pardon My Take podcast, Goff took aim at the local media for pushing negative news. He said it was fun to take "a little gas out of their tank" last season when the Lions won eight of their final 10 games after a 1-6 start.
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"I think there's a lot of members of our media that have an easy time writing bad things. And they have for quite some time," said Goff. "And when we were 1-6, they were laying it on pretty thick. Then we kind of flipped the script and it was almost like they ran out of things to write, because they weren't used to putting positive news out there."
Asked Tuesday if he might lose the chip on his shoulder if he and the Lions were showered in praise, Goff said, "You guys say or write whatever we deserve. Just as long as the shoe fits, we’re good. You guys have a job to do. I get it.”
And Goff has a job to do with the Lions, who are happy to have him under center and in the building -- no matter what anyone might say on the outside.
"He’s right on track," said Campbell. "In his second year in the offense, I feel like he’s right where he needs to be. He’s in a good place, he’s making big throws, he’s on top of the protection, and yeah, I feel good. There’s nothing that would tell me he’s not going to have another good year for us.”
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