Lions Issued Jared Goff Warning Ahead of Season

 
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Lions quarterback Jared Goff is facing a pivotal point with the franchise entering the 2025 season.
The Detroit Lions‘ brain drain from Ben Johnson’s departure is the biggest concern facing Jared Goff this season — but opposing NFL coaches and coordinators don’t seem to be too concerned.

In The Athletic’s annual quarterback tiers rankings, voted on by a panel of 50 coaches and executives, Goff earned a career-best No. 8 ranking and the highest average vote of his career, placing him firmly in the second tier.

“Goff and [Joe] Burrow are probably the two best anticipation throwers that I have seen lately, so you have to put him at a 1,” a head coach told Mike Sando of The Athletic. “You might put him at a [Tier] 2 from a pure quarterback standpoint — he struggles to extend plays — but the guy has played at a [Tier] 1 level for three years.”

While Goff has climbed to new career heights under the tutelage of Johnson, tallying a league-leading 96 touchdowns over the past three seasons, the 2025 season will put Goff to the test.

“You will see this year if it is the coordinator or the quarterback, but I think it has been more the quarterback than advertised,” an exec told Sando. “Goff and [Baker] Mayfield are legit guys who can get in a rhythm and dice you up. They are not as good as the top guys in Tier 1, but they deserve to be up there.”

 
Lions QB Jared Goff’s Polarizing Margins of His Play
Since the trade from the Los Angeles Rams, Goff has had to reinvent himself as a quarterback, leading to a polarizing appraisal from the voters.

While one voter justified ranking Goff a Tier 3 quarterback because “he needs the run game, he needs the defense, he needs all those things,” other voters have noticed his growth over the years, leading to a career-high five Tier 1 votes.

“He has definitely grown over the last couple years,” a defensive coordinator told Sando. “Early in his career, if you got him to be just a dropback quarterback, he would make a lot more mistakes. He is better in that area as far as protecting the football. He has a good run game, they have a good team. I’m not going to hold that against him too much.”

Of the 50 votes, Goff received 37 second-tier votes, eight third-tier votes and five first-tier votes.

 
Jared Goff Entering Prove-It Year With Lions
Goff is at a fitting crossroads with the Lions that coincides with Johnson’s departure.

This is the final year that Goff’s contract is affordable before the cap hits begin to seriously hinder the Lions’ ability to build a talented roster around him.

In 2025, Goff’s $32.6 million cap hit accounts for 11.7% of the team’s cap space. But in 2026, Goff’s cap hit balloons to $69.6 million and a 22.7% share of the cap space. Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the only quarterbacks who have won Super Bowls with a cap hit percentage over 12% since 2000.

That cap hit won’t stand in Detroit. The Lions will need to address those cap hits through either an extension or a restructure.

What that deal will look like and what kind of leverage Goff will have will be determined by how much he elevates the offense on his own this season.
Trevor Squire is a sports journalist covering the NFL and NBA for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks. Trevor studied journalism at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities, making stops at the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @trevordsquire. More about Trevor Squire