After a rough beginning to his time in Detroit, Lions quarterback Jared Goff has been as good as any quarterback in the NFL over the last three-plus seasons. Last season, he set new career-highs in passing yards (4,629) and touchdowns (37) with a career-best 111.8 passer rating.
There's some natural concern about Goff maintaining a high level of performance heading into the 2025 season. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is gone, and for all the good things Goff is as a quarterback it's clear was he is not.
In the wake of center Frank Ragnow's retirement in early June, ESPN's Mina Kimes put it fairly kindly to say Goff is an incredibly "pressure sensitive" quarterback.
Every quarterback has some drop-off in performance under pressure vs. operating with a clean pocket, but deeper data backs the eye test that suggests Goff has an unrivaled drop-off in effectiveness when he's pressured.
Jared Goff excelled in surprising subcategory of throws last season
Mason Cameron of Pro Football Focus took a look at the top-10 quarterbacks last season by time to throw, broken down as less than and more than 2.5 seconds from snap to throw (minimum 100 dropbacks in each category).
The top ten in PFF passing grade on dropbacks with more than 2.5 seconds to throw last season is littered with names you'd expect (Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow). Goff came in at No. 9 in PFF passing grade on those kind of dropbacks last season (77.5), and Cameron noted a couple areas where he was atop the league on those throws.
"Jared Goff continues to make strides in this facet. The Lions quarterback may not extend plays like some other names on this list, but he knows how to buy time for route concepts to develop downfield. He not only racked up the most yards per attempt on this list (9.7) but also managed to pace the league in rate of accurately thrown balls (65.5%)."
Creating time and space for downfield throws is not always about mobility and foot speed to extend plays. A prime example was Tom Brady. He couldn't have outrun your grandmother, but he could manipulate the pocket with his feet to create throwing windows on longer-developing plays. Goff shows similar ability at times, and PFF's numbers say he was the best he's ever been on those kind of throws last season.
Of course, the challenge for Goff will be continuing that unexpected excellence this year with a new play-caller and the natural downgrade to whoever will replace the best center in the NFL from the last few seasons.
