Jared Goff is the Right Guy for the Detroit Lions – Anne Erickson
Back in 2021, a major trade deal brought Los Angels Rams quarterback Jared Goff and a handful of draft picks to Detroit in exchange for then-Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Stafford, of course, went on to win a Super Bowl with the Rams. But, perhaps it’s Detroit that got the sweeter end of the deal.
Now, nearing the end of the 2022 regular season, Goff is playing the best football of his career. And he’s doing something with the Detroit Lions that Stafford couldn’t: banking wins.
Goff and the Lions also have a positive energy and momentum that this franchise hasn’t seen in decades- or maybe ever.
Jared Goff is successfully heading up one of the best offenses in the NFL at the moment. Of course, he’s not infallible. But he makes smart decisions on the field and has a newfound confidence that is leading the Lions to victories.
As they say, numbers don’t lie. During Sunday’s win against the Vikings, Goff threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns. His performances have made him one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL the last six weeks. Right now, he’s eighth in passing yards and 10th in touchdowns.
I admit that I was skeptical of Goff the beginning of this season. But, today, I’m ready to say that Goff is the right guy for the Detroit Lions now and in the future. I’m so glad he’s proven me wrong.
I’m certainly not the only one noticing Goff. Sports Illustrated made Goff the subject of their Daily Cover on Monday (Dec. 12).
“You never know how long the bad times are going to last, I guess,” Goff told Sports Illustrated after the Lions’ Sunday win against the Vikings. “The work we were putting in and the players we have and the coaches we have, we always believed in it. It was just a matter of time. In some ways, we were like, When is it going to pop?”
He added, “A lot of it is trust and belief, no doubt.”
Goff also says that he always believed the Lions had the talent to win. “We were losing these close games against really good teams and we were playing good football,” Goff told Sports Illustrated. “We really were [in] a lot of those games that we lost early on. I mean, there’s a world and a scenario where we could have a plus record right now if we finished off some of those games early on. But that was kind of the learning curve that we had to go through.”
He added, “And I was just saying to the guys, winning isn’t, like, some magic potion. It’s not something someone’s going to say in a team meeting. It’s really just emphasizing doing your job every single play, one play at a time and maybe be a little bit more focused in the fourth quarter to do your job. But we don’t need somebody to be Superman. We don’t need anybody to come out of nowhere and be a player that they aren’t. Just be who you are, do your job and things will fall where they may.”
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