Lions’ $69.6M Quarterback Gets Update After Playoff Collapse

Goff’s $69.6 million cap hit for 2026 is the fifth-highest among NFL quarterbacks, with a $55 million base salary. The Lions have to clear cap space before free agency starts on March 11. If they restructure Goff’s contract, his cap hit drops from $69.6 million to around $29.3 million, which is about $40 million in breathing room. But here’s the problem: that money doesn’t disappear. It just gets pushed down the road to 2027, 2028, and 2029. And that’s exactly when guys like Jahmyr Gibbs will be due for big paydays. So it’s a fix-now, pay later situation.

When Elite Stats Meet Organizational Collapse

Dropping six wins in one season as a defending division champ is rough, no matter how you spin it. The run game fell off hard, 120.1 yards per game, down from 149.4 the year before. The offensive line was the worst in the league at pass blocking, ranked 31st at 55.5%, even with Penei Sewell making First-Team All-Pro for the third year in a row. And here’s the wild part: Detroit outscored opponents by 68 points on the season. Normally, that gets you 11 or 12 wins. Instead, they missed the playoffs.

The Coordinator Exodus That Gutted Everything

Ben Johnson was left to coach the Bears. Aaron Glenn took the Jets job. Both departures hit in January 2025 and hollowed out Detroit’s infrastructure. Johnson’s schemes had made Goff the league’s best play-action passer in 2024: 75.4% completion rate, 1,978 yards, 15 touchdowns, all league highs. Replacements John Morton and Kelvin Sheppard couldn’t replicate it. The offense fell from 33.1 points per game to 28.3, and the defense allowed 24.3 per game.

The Offensive Line Collapse Exposing Goff

When Goff had time to throw, he completed 75.9% of his passes. When he was under pressure, that dropped to just 50.8%, a 25-point gap that ranked him 21st out of 41 quarterbacks, according to PFF. A big reason for that was the loss of center Frank Ragnow, who retired in June 2025. He tried to come back in November but failed his physical on the 29th due to a Grade 3 hamstring strain and never made it onto the field. Goff was working with about 2 seconds of pocket time on average, the lowest of his entire career. Graham Glasgow filled in at center and struggled so badly that he considered retiring afterward.

The Injury Avalanche That Wrecked the Defense

Safety Brian Branch tore his Achilles tendon in Week 14. Kerby Joseph fought chronic knee problems all season. The secondary was gutted. Tight end Sam LaPorta went down with a herniated disc in November. GM Brad Holmes admitted in February 2026 that thinking they were “very close” may have bred complacency: “you only need this piece, and you only need that piece”.

The Stafford Contrast That Stings

Matthew Stafford won the 2025 AP MVP at age 37, leading the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns while engineering a playoff run all the way to the NFC Championship Game. Goff put up nearly identical regular-season numbers but never got a shot at January football. As NFL.com’s Nick Shook wrote of Stafford: “He was, in fact, the best quarterback in the NFL. His playoff performances proved it”.

The Cap Space Puzzle

The Lions can generate the second-most cap space in the NFL through restructures, yet they currently need significant maneuvering just to get under the cap. Even after Goff’s $40 million in restructure savings, the to-do list is massive: rebuild the offensive line, find pass rushers, add secondary depth, and extend young stars like Jahmyr Gibbs and first-team All-Pro linebacker Jack Campbell. Every restructure dollar pushed forward is a dollar unavailable later.

Drew Petzing’s Impossible Assignment

The Lions brought in Drew Petzing as their new offensive coordinator on January 26, 2026. He spent three years running the offense in Arizona before taking the job. Now he walks into a situation with a banged-up offensive line, not much cap room, and fans who want results right away after watching the team go from 15-2 to 9-8. The tricky part is that Petzing likes to run the ball first, but Goff’s best work came out of play-action passing. Those two things don’t always mix. Oddsmakers still have the Lions at +160 to win the division, meaning they think Detroit has the talent. But it only works if everything comes together fast.

The Championship Window Under Threat

Four winning seasons in a row sounds impressive, until you remember the last one ended with no playoff spot. Goff is 31 now, and if the Lions restructure his deal, the cap hits in 2027 through 2029 get ugly. The talent around him is still there: Amon-Ra St. Brown put up 1,401 receiving yards, Jameson Williams hit 1,117, Jahmyr Gibbs keeps getting better, and Penei Sewell graded out at 95.5 on PFF. But as Nick Shook said, Goff “tried his best to rescue a Lions offense that declined in 2025.” At some point, it doesn’t matter how good one player is if everything else falls apart around him.

Sources:

Heavy.com, “Lions QB Jared Goff Gets Career News Amid NFL Offseason,” February 15, 2026

ESPN, “Lions Searching for Answers After Missing NFL Playoffs in Disappointing 2025,” February 2026

Sports Illustrated, “Exploring 2025 NFL Season of Lions QB Jared Goff By the Numbers,” January 15, 2026

ESPN, “Top 10 NFL Quarterbacks: Execs, Scouts 2025 Position Rankings,” February 2026

Pride of Detroit, “Detroit Lions Salary Cap and Contracts,” February 2026

NFL.com, “Ranking All 63 Starting Quarterbacks From the 2025 NFL Season,” February 11, 2026