Are The Detroit Lions Taking A Big Risk With Jared Goff’s Contract?

The Detroit Lions have signed quarterback Jared Goff to a massive four-year, $212 million deal, rewarding him for leading the franchise to its most successful season in three decades.

But are the Lions making a mistake?

Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport thinks the Lions are taking a pretty big risk here, listing Goff’s deal among the 10 riskiest quarterback contracts of the last decade.

Davenport says that Goff is “very good” but not “great” and wonders how Detroit will properly construct a championship-caliber roster in the coming years with Goff earning $53 million annually.

While it’s a relatively fair question, the Lions had to do this.

Up until 2023, Detroit had not won a division title in 30 years. It also had not won a playoff game since January 1992. Goff proceeded to lead the Lions an NFC North crown and took them all the way to the NFC Championship Game, where they came this close to getting to the Super Bowl. Detroit held a 24-7 lead over the San Francisco 49ers at halftime but ended up blowing it.

Sure, you can use the blown lead as an indictment of Goff. You can use it as supporting evidence for why he doesn’t deserve this lucrative contract extension.

But it wouldn’t be right.

Look: the quarterback market is weird. New players reset it every year, and nearly every time it happens, we question if the signal-caller deserves it.

It’s the nature of the NFL, and Goff is just a cog in the system.

The fact of the matter is that Goff is a reliable quarterback who has already experienced considerable postseason success. He took the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl during the 2018-19 campaign, five years before he even achieved what he did in the Motor City.

So, it’s not like Goff was just a one-year wonder. He has actually been pretty good for the vast majority of his career, give or take a couple of pedestrian seasons in there.

The Lions are legitimate contenders heading into 2024, and they are acting like it. Not only did they extend Goff, but they also locked up offensive tackle Penei Sewell and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. They are functioning as an actual, serious NFL front office rather than the Mickey Mouse organization we saw for countless years prior.

They should be commended for that. We shouldn’t be nitpicking whether or not they gave Goff too much money or whether or not they will have enough cash in the till to improve the team going forward.

Head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes are shrewd guys. They seem to know what they are doing, and they have done a phenomenal job building a contender here.

Could Goff’s contract become an albatross or at least a hindrance? Maybe, but you can say that about almost any deal. Who would have thought Russell Wilson would become such a problem in Denver, for example? Heck, even Jalen Hurts’ contract in Philadelphia is looking questionable after 2023.

But again, it’s how football works. The quarterback position is the most important in sports. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too surprising when good quarterbacks get paid.

It’s hard to find a franchise quarterback, so when you find a good one, you need to cultivate him. He doesn’t have to be Patrick Mahomes. He just has to be capable of winning a Super Bowl, and with the right pieces around him, Goff is certainly competent enough to do just that.

The Lions had to extend Jared Goff. If they didn’t, they would have begun reverting back to their old selves, and no Detroit fans want to wear paper bags over their heads again.