In Detroit, the Lions are two-time defending NFC North champs. In Vegas, the Packers are favorites to win the division after trading for Micah Parsons.
"Vegas has been wrong before, right?" Jared Goff said Tuesday ahead of the Lions' season-opener Sunday in Green Bay. "Who knows, we’ll see. They’re a good team, they added a good player, and we’re all 0-0."
The Packers are becoming a popular pick around the NFL, while the Lions, who went 15-2 last season, have been one of the most-bet teams to miss the playoffs. When the crew on NFL Network's Good Morning Football made their NFC North picks Tuesday, none of the three experts picked the Lions -- despite the Lions going 6-0 in the division last year and 15-3 over the last three seasons.
This is all fine by Goff. Asked how he feels about Detroit's odds dropping in the division after the team lost its two top coordinators and two key cogs on the offensive line, Goff smiled and said, "Love it."
"I mean, it’s confusing because I don’t even know, where do we stand externally? I don’t know what people (think), and I don’t really care, but are we supposed to be good? Are we supposed to be bad? All these different storylines, you can’t ride that roller coaster, and we don’t. We shall see. Time will tell. We’re gonna try to win this first one and move on from there. But yes, I like being on this side of it more when they doubt us," he said.
As for the Packers' acquisition of Parsons, Goff said, "There were some rumors going on there, so I guess I wasn’t really surprised when it happened, but yeah, he’s a great player and adds to an already competitive division."
Goff, for his own part, has thrown for the most yards and most touchdowns in the NFL over the last three seasons. Patrick Mahomes is second in both categories. The Lions and new offensive coordinator John Morton are putting even more on Goff's plate as he enters year five in Detroit, especially after the retirement of star center Frank Ragnow. The mental demands will be higher on Goff than ever.
He loves it.
"I really try to see how much I can handle every week," he said. "I try to ask for more, more, more, and it’s kind of their job to governor that. We’ve done a good job over the past handful of years doing that and this year it’s ramped up a little bit, which is great, and I've owned it. I’m in my 10th year and feel like there’s certain things I can help with, and Johnny’s been awesome, listening as well as giving me feedback when he disagrees with something that I think, and I think that’s important."
The Lions had a top-five offense each of the past three seasons under Ben Johnson, behind one of the best offensive lines in the league. Their first test under Morton and with a new-look line will come against a top-five defense from last season that just added one of the best players in the game.
"Hopefully we come out of the gates firing on all cylinders," said Goff. "In reality that’s kind of hard to do right away, but yeah, we want to catch up to speed as quickly as we can."