Jared Goff Set to Surpass Ryan Fitzpatrick and Steve Young’s Elite Record in 2025 Season

After the Los Angeles Rams traded Jared Goff and a bundle of picks for Matthew Stafford, his first season with the Detroit Lions yielded a 3-10-1 regular season record, leaving many to believe that the third-round draft pick was entering ‘bust’ territory. Thankfully, Dan Campbell was there to revitalize both Goff’s career and the Lions franchise.

Since 2023, Goff and the rest of the Lions’ offense have been dominating the league. He’s thrown for 30 and 37 touchdowns in each of the last two seasons, and is now surging up the all-time career passing touchdowns leaderboard.

With 222 passing touchdowns, Goff currently has the 40th most of any signal caller in NFL history, that sits him right behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has 223, and well within striking range of Steve Young’s career total of 232. Needing just one to surpass Fitzpatrick, Goff figures to have that done by halftime of Week 1.

Currently averaging 28 passing touchdowns per season, the 30-year-old veteran projects to finish just outside of the top 25 all-time Passing TD rankings. So long as he can keep his current form, Goff will be able to eclipse the likes of Joe Montana and Vinny Testaverde to entire the top-20 rankings.

While he’s far removed from the all-time leaders in Tom Brady and Drew Brees, Goff is steadily proving that he is in fact the long-term franchise quarterback that the Rams initially thought he could be. Nevertheless, it’ll be a while, if ever, before he is able to outdo the man that he was traded for in Stafford.

Stafford has 282 passing touchdowns as a Lion, easily the most in the history of what has been a relatively impoverished franchise. Nevertheless, Goff has already produced the third most in Lions history, 115.

Should he maintain his aforementioned average of 28 touchdowns per season, Goff would need six more seasons in Detroit before he would be able to take Stafford’s crown. When it comes to passing yards, it would take Goff a total of seven seasons to pass him up for the most in franchise history.

Considering that Goff is still just 30 years old, that’s actually a very reasonable feat, but it won’t be without its challenges. The team’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, who was largely credited for the fact that the Lions were the highest scoring team in football last year, is leaving town and taking his explosive play calling with him.

Throw in the fact that Detroit also lost out on its defensive coordinator in Aaron Glenn, and it’s safe to say that the Lions are going to look like a different team in 2025. Whether or not they are able to be as productive as last year, will be largely up to Goff.

The front office has provided him with the services of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, two of the more proficient players at their respective positions, so there won’t be many excuses for Goff should he fail to make the most of this offense. Then again, he’s proved the doubters wrong so far, so there’s few other reasons to believe that he won’t be capable of becoming the next king of Detroit.