Jared Goff’s NFL career has taken in two stops, first being the first overall pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 2016, before being traded to the Detroit Lions in 2021.
Some initial success with the Rams under Sean McVay led to a Super Bowl appearance in 2018, although it ended in a disappointing, low-scoring loss to the New England Patriots.
Following his 2021 trade to the Detroit Lions, he has helped Dan Campbell reinvigorate the franchise, taking them to the NFC Championship and NFC Divisional round in successive seasons.
Here are Goff’s 5 biggest passing yardage games, and how they contributed to the quarterback we know today.
5 – Kansas City Chiefs 51 – 54 Los Angeles Rams, Week 11, 2018 (413 yards, four touchdowns)
This game also appears on Patrick Mahomes’ list, and with good reason, as it’s one of the finest displays of passing by both quarterbacks in NFL history.
The fact it was shown in prime-time on Monday Night Football only adds to its mystique.
For Goff, this was the kind of game that he had a lot in 2018, as the team went 13-3 and went all the way to the Super Bowl. This season, but particularly this game, was perhaps his apex under Sean McVay, as while he didn’t outdo Patrick Mahomes in terms of yardage, he was more efficient, committing no turnovers to Mahomes’s three, and still found a way to throw four touchdowns.
The fact he had four games with higher yardage than this seems insane, but incredibly, it’s still true.
34 total TDs, 13 wins and a trip to the @SuperBowl.@RamsNFL QB @JaredGoff16's 2018 Regular Season Highlights! #SBLIII #LARams pic.twitter.com/qd9MBUKQ20
— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2019
4 – Los Angeles Rams 34 – 7 Arizona Cardinals, Week 13, 2019 (424 yards, two touchdowns)
As with most teams that fail to win the Super Bowl, the Rams suffered a Super Bowl hangover in 2019, falling to a pedestrian 9-7 record with Goff throwing sixteen interceptions, a career high.
Along the way, though, there were some signs that Goff was still capable of his best, and perhaps the strongest was here, where Goff’s mastery of the ball led the team to a 34-0 lead by the middle of the 3rd quarter. That turned what might have been an otherwise tight game against the Cardinals new hope, Kyler Murray, into a blowout.
The Rams would finish 9-7 in 2019, missing the playoffs in large part due to their inability to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, who won the division and went to the Super Bowl, although they’d suffer the same fate of agonizing defeat, too, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs.
3 – Minnesota Vikings 31 – 38 Los Angeles Rams, Week 4, 2018 (465 yards, five touchdowns)
While there are still two games to list after this one, this may be the quintessential moment of Goff in Los Angeles – in the midst of his best season in 2018, throwing five touchdowns, including to a rapidly ascending Cooper Kupp, as his team won an entertaining shoot-out against Kirk Cousins.
Matching most of Goff’s best games, he was also incredibly efficient, never turning the ball over, and finally started to look like the player the Rams thought they were getting when they drafted him first overall out of California in 2016.
Winning this ding-dong battle so early in the 2018 season seemed to grease the wheels for the majority of the rest of it, with Goff lifting his team to a 4-0 start that would eventually lead to a 13-3 record, undoubtedly one of the best in the NFL that season.
I can’t think of the Vikings without remembering this EPIC game from 2018.
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) December 24, 2021
Jared Goff put together the greatest QB performance that I personally have ever witnessed.
26/33 for 465 yards and 5 TDs, perfect QB rating. The Rams loaded offense all had great performances pic.twitter.com/xKsRR5PYGq
2 – Buffalo Bills 48 – 42 Detroit Lions, Week 15, 2024 (494 yards, five touchdowns)
One of the best duels of the 2024 season, Goff’s faceoff with Buffalo Bills phenom Josh Allen was one of the most entertaining games of the entire year.
Battling a struggling defense full of replacements due to injuries, and trying to mount a comeback against Allen and the Bills’ relentless offense, Goff, frankly, couldn’t have done more to help, throwing for almost 500 yards and five touchdowns without a turnover in a vain attempt to win his side the game.
That would, unfortunately, become a metaphor for the 2024 season, with his team finally falling to the Washington Commanders in the NFC Divisional round in another shoot-out, amidst yet more defensive injuries.
He seemed to be in great sync with now-Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson, and questions will remain as to how he fares without him in 2025.
Week 15, 2024
Detroit Lions vs Buffalo Bills pic.twitter.com/0nagrMLhzg— Random Detroit Lions Play Every Day (@lionsplayaday) March 14, 2025
1 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers 55 – 40 Los Angeles Rams, Week 4, 2019 (517 yards, two touchdowns)
The final game on this list is another from the Rams’ disappointing 2019, and this game really exemplifies what went wrong for the Rams the year after their 2018 Super Bowl run.
Their defense appeared to have no answers for, of all people, Jameis Winston, who threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns, and Goff spent most of the game trying to keep his team within touching distance of Tampa Bay’s rampant offense.
Perhaps due to that, Goff ended up logging mostly empty yardage, topping 500 yards, but only throwing two touchdowns against three interceptions, making this one of the poorer games on this list.
