The Starbucks at the JW Marriott has now become infamous due to the media argument between two of the leagues top NFL Insiders.
A day or so prior to the argument between Ian Rapoport of NFL Network and Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports, this writer just needed a jolt of energy after spending a day interviewing every key Detroit Lions figure that was present at the Combine.
The benefit of having colleagues with years and years of experience covering the combine is they freely shared where to eat, where to hang out in the evening hours and where to frequent, if you want to run into agents, scouts, league executives, head coaches and front office personnel.
So, after ordering a grande black coffee at Starbucks, an NFC general manager came walking by.
Luckily, I did not spill my drink all over myself as I approached and gave my credentials and asked just for a couple mins to chat.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff did not have his best showing against the Washington Commanders, turning the football over repeatedly and succumbing to the relentless pressure from Dan Quinn's defense.
Most pundits and league personnel have a tremendous amount of respect for Goff's accuracy and ability to lead an offense.
"Jared is a quarterback that has shown he can rebound time and time again from a bad performance," the GM said. "He is not going to want to have that uneasy feeling sitting with him for too long."
Goff had one of his best career seasons in 2024, as he threw for 4,629 yards, 37 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
When asked about the potential for the veteran signal-caller to be in the MVP conversation again this upcoming season, the GM said, "Yeah, I certainly expect him to again be in the conversation to win MVP in 2025, and to build on what he and Ben Johnson have worked on these past couple of seasons. Jared is certainly up there among the best pocket passers."
New offensive coordinator John Morton shared some of his offensive philosphies, when he sat down with a group of Detroit reporters at the Combine.
"Let's start with protecting the ball, all right. And that's making good decisions. That's protecting the ball a certain way so you don't fumble it. And you always got to talk about these things. We always got to talk about them, because we can draw up all the X's and O's and plays and everything, but as we saw, all the playoff teams that lost, it all came down to the turnovers," said Morton. "So, we got to talk about that.
"We got to score points, which they've done here. I think they've been in the top five in scoring offense. And that's a plus. I mean, you got to be able to do that. I think you got to have explosive plays. You got to be able to do that," Morton continued. "I think there's a certain amount of explosive plays that you need in a game, because that's what the defense, they want to stop explosive plays. And then on third down, you know, and Detroit's offense has been the tops in all of those categories."
