Detroit Lions mailbag: How can Jared Goff earn a long-term role with Lions?

The Detroit Lions have done just about everything in their power to make Jared Goff comfortable in his second NFL home. After Goff proved last year that he could weather the emotional storm of an ego-busting trade and a lackluster season, they rewarded the 27-year-old quarterback with a flurry of investments in the passing game.

Detroit returns an offensive line that could be a top-five unit this year. They re-signed productive receivers in Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond. And they invested in new talent with the free agency signing of DJ Chark and drafting of Jameson Williams. Combine that with receiving talent at tight end (T.J. Hockenson) and running back (D’Andre Swift), and Goff has a pretty decent supporting cast.

This week on our Q&A podcast via the Spotify Live app, we talk about how Goff’s expectations have changed given the improvement of the roster.

“You put all of (the receiving corps) together and then eventually get Jameson Williams, I think Jared Goff needs to have—should have—an average season,” I responded. “Right in that 14-to-18 range.”

Erik Schlitt had some higher expectations for Goff.

“When you look at what he did down the back half of the stretch, and then you upgrade 30 percent of his (receiving) options, that (performance) should really be his floor,” Schlitt said. “That should be the expectation for him coming in. I’m expecting him to come out and be back-half-of-the-season Jared Goff, and if he is, now I want to see more.”

Then the conversation turned to what Goff needs to do in order to land himself a long-term gig in Detroit and earn the trust of coaches and fans to potentially be a franchise quarterback again.

“Can Jared Goff go out and win a game that is a shootout?” Ryan Mathews posed. “Can Jared Goff go win a football game where the defense is doing him no favors? I think that that’s a fair test for him this season. I’m not putting quarterback wins on him, but can Jared Goff, in a shootout, can he come out on top? If there’s a situation or a game where that happens and he proves that he can do that, I think that speaks volumes.”

You can listen to our entire conversation below:

Other topics this week include:

• Will Detroit change their strategy on keeping solely special teams players?
• Who will challenge for the return spots?
• Our favorite non-football sports
• How the Lions' scheme could make up for poor linebacker room
• Which linebackers could we be overlooking?
• How would we react if the Lions acquired a player with very serious allegations against them?

As always, you can catch this podcast and all of our offerings by subscribing to the PODcast here: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.