Why the Historic Jared Goff Contract Actually Makes Sense for the Lions.
He was basically a castoff when Detroit acquired him in 2021’s Matthew Stafford trade.
At that point, Jared Goff was a warm body who could throw the ball while the Detroit Lions reloaded around him and scanned the market for someone better. But the second act of Goff’s NFL career now has a lucrative stamp of approval.
Three seasons, an NFC North title, and an NFC championship game appearance later, the former No. 1 overall pick of the Los Angeles Rams will get $170 million guaranteed over four years and up to $212 million on a new contract that begins after the 2024 season.
Now 29, Goff will be 34 when the contract extension lapses, and for now, he’s slated to be the highest-paid player in Lions history and the second highest-paid quarterback in the NFL behind the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow.
Will Goff actually be the NFL’s second best-paid QB for any extended amount of time? The continued growth of the salary cap and the league’s obsession with QBs means that he’ll get passed pretty quickly – maybe by Dak Prescott in 2025 (when the Dallas Cowboys’ signal-caller be up for a new deal) and certainly within a year or two after.
Is Goff worth the contract? Intuitively, the easy answer is “no.” No one believes Goff is a top-five quarterback, and he’ll now be paid like one.
But QB deals are never struck up in a vacuum. And in the context of what the Lions are building right now, a megadeal for a better-than-serviceable QB makes a lot of sense.
The 2023 Lions, which made the postseason for the first time since 2016 and had two playoff wins for the first time since 1957, were third in the NFL in yards per play (5.9). They were also third in net yards per pass attempt (6.9) and fifth in yards per carry (4.6).
That multidimensional success converted to finishing fifth in scoring (27.1 points per game). By whichever metric you pick, Detroit had a top-five offense.
In fact, the Lions ranked fourth in offensive EVE by averaging 0.5 yards more than the expected amount last season.