Does Detroit believe in Jared Goff? We're about to find out

Seven years ago Jared Goff was the belle of the NFL Draft ball.

The Cal product went No. 1 overall to Los Angeles Rams, the franchise’s first selection upon returning to the West Coast. As the quarterback walked across the stage to hug Roger Goodell, Tupac and Dr. Dre’s “California Love” played, appropriately, overhead.

That was a career worth of ups, downs, Super Bowls, three-win seasons, trades, doubts and rebirths ago. Goff is just 28, but the man has been through the pro football wringer.

Now comes a draft night of near equal importance. His new team, Detroit, enters with momentum from a 9-8 season, five of the top 81 picks overall (including No. 6 and 18) at its disposal and the forever question when it comes to Jared Goff.

Is he good enough? Like good enough, good enough?

Goff completed 65.1 percent of his passes last year for 4,438 yards with 29 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He isn’t much of a runner, so Pro Football Focus graded him out as the 20th best QB in the league. To his credit though, he shepherded the NFL’s fifth-highest scoring offense at 26.6 points per game.

He was a huge reason why Detroit won eight of its last 10 games. The early season struggles were mostly on the defense, which finished ranked 28th in points allowed and spent weeks as the league’s worst unit. His leadership and work ethic are unquestioned.

“We like Jared,” general manager Brad Holmes said last month. “He’s our starter.”

Just how much they like him will soon be known.

If the Lions truly believe in Jared Goff, then they look at a soaring program and use those five high draft picks to seek difference makers at positions other than quarterback. The most glaring needs remain on the defense that has potential behind young linemen Aidan Hutchinson and James Houston (a combined 17.5 sacks last season).

The addition of a few game-impacting rookies to go with a nice free agent class that filled some gaps, particularly in the secondary, and Detroit can focus on winning the division for the first time in three decades and hosting a chance to win just their second playoff game since 1957.

That requires seeing Goff as not just the 2023 starter, but one for the future, including a potential contract extension beyond the 2024 season.

Much of the draft debate around the Lions, however, has centered on whether they draft a top quarterback, either with the No. 6 pick or even in a package to move up. With so much draft capital, they can do almost anything they want.

Do they take a shot at Anthony Richardson, Will Levis or C.J. Stroud, should they be available? Or do they focus on a defensive lineman such as Will Anderson Jr., Tyree Wilson or Jalen Carter? What about cornerback Devon Witherspoon among others?

To go the QB route suggests, for the most part, that the Lions believe they need a talent pop at the position or, at the very least, a long-term fix. In other words, Goff isn’t really the answer.

The caveat is that they truly believe one of these college quarterbacks is a superstar in the making. Kansas City didn’t need a quarterback in 2017. Veteran Pro Bowler Alex Smith had just led them to a 12-4 season. Yet general manager Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid saw Patrick Mahomes as a generational talent they could land with the 10th pick. They pounced and haven’t regretted it for a second.

If that’s the case, then that’s the case. It’s about the only reason for Detroit to go quarterback at the top of their draft. If it’s a gamble at all, a perceived project at all, then it’s another in a long line of doubts thrown Goff’s way.

Goff isn’t Mahomes. He may not even be Alex Smith (himself a former No. 1 overall pick). Goff did lead the Rams to a Super Bowl, but then produced just a field goal in a loss to New England.

What he is, though, is resilient and professional. He got shipped out of LA after the 2021 season to a Detroit franchise that was in the latest of its multigenerational rebuilds. He had to sit and watch as his old Rams team promptly won the Super Bowl behind Matthew Stafford or, in other words, without him. The Lions went 3-13-1 that year.

Rather than pout or see his motivation or work ethic fade, he put down roots in Detroit — both applying himself inside the Lions facility and out in the community. He didn’t treat this as a demotion or a pit stop to the next opportunity.

Even when the Lions started last year 1-6 due in large part to that porous defense, he kept plugging and plugging until they turned things around on the fly.

There hasn’t been this much optimism around the team in a long, long time. Goff is front and center with it, a huge reason why a division title and (gasp) a playoff victory (or even victories) are reasonable to expect. Put more talent around him and who knows what he can do?

Yet seven years after he went No. 1 overall, Jared Goff may be once again watching the draft and wondering what his future holds.

Does Detroit believe in him? Like really believe, really believe?

Thursday will likely answer that.