Lions GM rips 'lazy' Jared Goff narrative

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes insists he never viewed Jared Goff as merely a temporary starting quarterback after the Lions acquired Goff in the trade that included Detroit sending Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in March 2021. 

"...I never thought of him as just a bridge or stop-gap or whatever just because I was all around the success he had early in his career in L.A.," Holmes said about Goff during an appearance on NFL Network's "The Insiders," per Nick Shook of the league's website. "It seems like when he got here when the trade was made that all that success was forgotten about. It was just this narrative that he was just a bridge. I always thought that was a lazy narrative."

Goff helped the Lions go 8-2 after Halloween last season and then guided the club to four wins in five games ahead of this coming Sunday's contest at the 3-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 28-year-old unceremoniously discarded by the Rams following the 2020 campaign recently made it known he feels he'll always have "haters and lovers" among members of the football community regardless of his play. 

Detroit fans should have few complaints about their QB1 five weeks into this season. 

Per ESPN stats, Goff began Thursday ranked fifth in the NFL among qualified players with a 71.2 adjusted QBR, sixth with a 104.4 passer rating and tied for seventh with nine touchdowns through the air. Meanwhile, OddsChecker listed the Lions on Thursday afternoon as three-and-a-half point favorites to defeat the Buccaneers this Sunday and as the betting favorites at -400 odds to claim the NFC North division crown. 

Holmes suggested Goff has the goods to win the toughest games on the biggest stages beginning with Sunday's clash at Raymond James Stadium.

"...Hopefully he can keep this going but even if he has some lows, I'm not worried about Jared because one of the more underrated components of him that I think is his mental toughness," Holmes added. "He's shown that, he's displayed that and he's doing a great job for us."

Goff remains signed only through the 2024 season and likely becomes more expensive for either the Lions or a different team with each victory he notches. Holmes and the Detroit front office may want to consider paying the eighth-year pro sooner rather than later before he wins more than just a handful of games for the organization.