Jared Goff has come a long way since being the quarterback Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was waiting for the opportunity to get rid of. Even his first season-plus as the Detroit Lions' quarterback invited questions about his staying power as a starter in the league.
Now, heading toward his fifth season as the Lions' starting quarterback, there are fresh questions. Can Goff lead the Lions to the Super Bowl? How will he do without offensive coordinator Ben Johnson?
What there is no question about is the faith Lions general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell have in Goff. Holmes reiterated that with Mike Florio on "PFT Live" at the owner's meetings in Florida.
"I’ve always said, I had more optimism than probably the outside world did, just because I knew him so intimately well,” Holmes said. “All the work that we did with him coming out in the draft and all the early success, I was right there with that early success and, I always said when I was with the Rams, when we lost that Super Bowl people ready to really just write them off. And I was like, look, he’s so young and he still has so much left in them that, I had a lot of optimism that he was going to continue to develop and continue to mature and continue to get better. Again, you don’t have a crystal ball. You never know how far it’s going to go, but I’m so very happy for him because he’s put all the work in.”
Dan Campbell expects Jared Goff to take more control of the Lions' offense
Upon coming in to replace Johnson as the Lions' offensive coordinator, John Morton said the offense would be "predicated" on Goff.
Speaking at the owner's meetings on Tuesday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked about Goff's growth.
"Growth? Look, he continues to grow every year,” Campbell said. “And I’d say the next step for him — and he knows this every year, like last year, he came to us, everything we wanted him to do in the offense he did. And then he began to bring stuff to us...‘Hey man, I can see this look. Let me get to this play. I know I’ve got these options in the bag, but let me get to this as well. Those are the things where he’s, ‘OK, here we go man.’ That’s beginning to show. And I would anticipate that to take another step up.”
Goff's play improved when Johnson became offensive coordinator, included him in the planning process and honed in on what he liked and did best. Morton won't be reinventing that wheel, and in concert with that Campbell expects his quarterback to take greater control of the Lions' offense.
