Saturday open thread: Will Jared Goff have a career year?

There isn’t any single player on the Detroit Lions more under the microscope this season than quarterback Jared Goff.

But Lions general manager Brad Holmes believes confidence will best serve Goff this season.

“I will say,” said Holmes, “I do believe the confidence that he has going into this year has been a big difference. And I always felt that he was a confident kid, he’s always been a very mentally tough kid.”

The Lions will need Goff to be at his best in order for Detroit to take a step further in this rebuild under Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell. And there’s one ESPN staff writer who wouldn’t be surprised if Goff were to set career highs in both passing yards and touchdown passes in the 2022 season.

“The Lions look good on the offensive line,” explains Dan Graziano. “They added DJ Chark to the receiving corps to go with the promising Amon-Ra St. Brown. They’re strong at running back with D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams.”

And while Graziano may be high on the group Detroit has surrounded Goff with this season, he doesn’t necessarily think it will result in the Lions being a playoff contender.

“I’m not saying the Lions make some major jump into the playoffs this year, and I’m not just caught up in “Hard Knocks” hype, because Goff has been the invisible man on that show so far this year. I’m saying the Lions feel very, very good about how Goff has looked in camp, and he may be better set up for statistical success than you think he is.”

This leads us to today’s Question of the Day...

Will Jared Goff have a career year?

As Graziano points out earlier in his rationale, Goff’s career highs were set in 2018 when he passed for 4,688 yards and 32 touchdowns with a Los Angeles Rams team that reached the Super Bowl that season. While those seem like lofty numbers to shoot for after, Goff totaled just 3,245 passing yards and 19 touchdowns over 14 games in his first season with Detroit, if Goff is healthy for all 17 games, the weapons added around him ahead of this year should at least have him in the ballpark of matching those career numbers.

Heading into last season, Goff’s expected starting receivers—Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman—played exactly zero regular season games together after Perriman was released before Week 1. Williams played just one game with Detroit before a concussion ended his season, and Goff’s favorite target became Swift around the line of scrimmage.

Adding a vertical threat like Chark, and having another one waiting in the wings in rookie Jameson Williams, Detroit has bona fide big-play threats outside the numbers once Williams can rehab his knee. In the meantime, St. Brown showed enough down the stretch to suggest he could end up being Goff’s most reliable receiver. All of this goes without mentioning T.J. Hockenson, the team’s top tight end, who finds himself in a position to reset the market should he have a career year himself.

If Goff were to have a career year in passing yards and touchdowns, Detroit would have taken a huge step in the right direction on offense—and unlike Graziano, I believe Goff having the best year of his career would likely put the Lions in position to contend for a playoff spot. Will he have such a year remains to be seen, but Holmes has done a commendable job putting Goff in the best position to do so after just two offseasons.

Your turn.