At every opportunity he gets, Brad Holmes has denied the idea of being in a "Super Bowl window." The Detroit Lions are definitely in one though, even if their general manager doesn't think so, and back-to-back postseasons falling short of a Super Bowl appearance has naturally narrowed said window.
Another tentacle to the Lions' "Super Bowl window is contract extensions that have already been done and are coming. Keeping everyone they'd like to will simply not be possible, as the cap numbers for those contract start to hit the books. As an example Goff's contract extension starts this year, and his cap number will more than double from 2025 to 2026. A contract restructure can only fix that so much.
After the Lions' playoff loss to the Washington Commanders, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report hit a sobering note about them being able to win a Super Bowl with Goff as the quarterback.
"The Lions have too much talent not to bounce back in 2025, but the conclusion to 2024 has to leave you wondering if this franchise can actually make a Super Bowl run with Jared Goff leading the offense."
Frankly, two of Goff's worst games last season came in the regular season finale against the Vikings and the playoff loss to the Commanders.
Jared Goff easily makes list of quarterbacks under pressure to win Super Bowl
The Lions are the first team in NFL history to lose back-to-back playoff games when they scored 30-plus points. The defense's shortcomings are obviously not Goff's fault, but he also hasn't played especially well in those games and the quarterback is always a target for blame.
Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports has listed five quarterbacks who are under the most pressure to win the Super Bowl in 2025. Goff lands at No. 4.
"Goff is the third quarterback to win 13+ games in a season for two different teams (Brady, Peyton Manning) yet is just 4-5 in the playoffs while completing 61.2% of his passes with an 85.1 passer rating. Can Goff perform well enough in the playoffs to win a championship?"
"The Lions are in "win-now" mode, and have an excellent chance to win the Super Bowl in 2025. There's a lot of pressure for Goff to exercise his playoff demons and get Detroit to the Super Bowl, especially for a franchise that has never been to the Super Bowl."
Goff actually has a 5-5 career record in the playoffs, but Kerr's overall point stands.
The playoff losses of the last two years are not solely Goff's fault. But things don't go perfectly in those kind of big games, and he was not able to up his level of play to overcome when things went awry (an injury-riddled defense is struggling, someone drops a couple critical passes, etc.).
The questions about Goff being able to lead the Lions to the Super Bowl are not going away, and reasonable skeptics will remain until it gets done.
