Once upon a time, the pocket passer was the NFL norm. In that way, Jared Goff, much like his predecessor in Detroit, is a bit of a throwback. Instead of threatening a defense with his legs, he bends it with his brain -- his eyes, his shoulders, his hips.
No one does this better these days than Matthew Stafford.
"He's the best at it," Goff said on The Athletic Football Show this week. "I think about him, I think about Brady, Peyton, these guys that are a little older that don’t move and you have to be able to create space, whether that’s moving slightly in the pocket, or down the field, how do you create space for your receivers?"
"The manipulation of defenders," says Goff, is one of the ways he's taken his game to the next level in Detroit. Armed with a clearer understanding of the rules of the players across from him, he can exploit them to his advantage.
If the defense is in Cover 3, for example, Goff knows that the "hook player (typically an off-ball linebacker guarding the middle of the field) is supposed to get to a certain landmark," which means that Goff can move him off that spot in either direction with, say, a subtle pump fake one way, or a quick glance the other, and "I can get what I want."
"I think a lot of that -- during the drop, moving defenders -- is something I've tried to develop as I've gotten older. ... I try to do it daily, I work on different things daily to see if I can move a defender with a certain look, certain body position, shoulders, eyes. It’s hard on day 15 of camp to keep trying to get these guys to do different things, but it’s a fun challenge," said Goff.
He breaks down a play in the interview below (around the 7:10 mark) that illustrates what he's talking about.
As Goff gets better and better at the chess match on the field, he's enjoying the game more and more. He's at the peak of his powers and still improving, first in the NFL over the last three seasons in completions, yards and touchdowns, second to Lamar Jackson in passer rating. He has established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, mobile or not.
That's why Goff has no end in sight. Asked last week about another all-time great, Aaron Rodgers, embarking on his final season at the age of 42, Goff smiled and said “Yeah, pretty good, something to look forward to for me." He turns 32 in October. Goff said it's "going to be a long time" before he even starts to ponder retirement.
"It’s just the amount of fun that you have, once you start to understand it more and more. And I by no means think I’m done learning or have it figured out," he said this week. "But when you have a good grasp on what a defense is trying to do to you, and how to counterpunch that, and then what their counter’s going to be to that, and then what your counter is, the chess moves of it all become so fun to be a part of and to lead the charge with the ball in your hands.
"And that fun is something I don’t feel like I want to give up any time soon."
