The Detroit Lions enjoyed another fantastic season offensively in 2024 due in large part to the play of their quarterback Jared Goff.
Goff presided over another top-10 offense last season, throwing for 4,629 yards and a career-high 37 touchdowns en-route to another Pro Bowl appearance. His team collected 15 wins and repeated as division champions.
In spite of those positives, Goff delivered a clunker in the playoffs against the Washington Commanders, casting a pall over his season. Now, with added pressure following the departure of Ben Johnson, the question becomes whether Goff has another bounce-back in him.
Ahead of 2025, Bleacher Report and Brad Gagnon have revealed obstacles facing every starting quarterback in the league. For Goff, everything reverts back to the ugly showing in last year's playoff defeat.
"59.7. That was the veteran's passer rating in a nightmare home playoff loss to Washington. Whatever he does in the regular season, Goff needs to deliver when it matters."
Goff has been a great regular season quarterback, but last year's defeat dropped him to 4-5 in the postseason. While he has been to a pair of NFC title games and a Super Bowl, a sub-.500 playoff record could become an issue for a Detroit team with aspirations. Fortunately, Goff understands this dynamic.
Mark Brunell believes Jared Goff focused on excellence in 2025
For anyone worried about whether Goff realizes the stakes in 2025, they need only listen to the words of Brunell, the quarterback coach. According to him, Goff realizes the moment and is relentlessly chasing excellence.
"There's very little left for Jared (Goff) to accomplish other than a Super Bowl. He's been in the Pro Bowl and he's one of the best in the business right now, but he's in pursuit of winning a championship. That is what drives him and he understands full well that what you do in May has everything to do with what happens in February."
"Being the leader of this team and getting on the same page with the other guys that he's been with for a while and just being our our leader; the franchise quarterback, he understands that you have a window and however long this window is open, we don't know, but we have this year. So he is very much in pursuit of us being the best team in the NFL."
With playoff frustration in the front of his mind, nobody should be worried about Goff having hunger to drive the Lions. As long as he is comfortable in John Morton's offense, there's reason to think Goff comes back with a vengeance driven by the bad taste of last January.
