Detroit Lions: Is this player the key to the 2021 season?

Could Jared Goff be that key player?

The east answer of who will be the Lions key player next season is Jared Goff. After all, the quarterback is the most important position on the field.

If Goff comes in and plays well, then he will give the Lions a chance to be somewhat competitive, even with all the roster issues that need to be addressed. Yet if we compare Jared Goff to Matthew Stafford, there is no question that Matthew is the better player and much more capable of carrying a team than Goff.

How much success Goff has will be more determined by how well Dan Campbell’s system works around Goff and allows Jared to play to his strengths.

With the questions at receiver and a defense that will still probably have difficulty stopping opponents next season, even as important as the quarterback position is, it seems to lend to the possibility that another player’s production will be more important than Jared’s.

Defensively if there is a player that can create havoc on opposing offenses, then he should get consideration. Last year Romeo Okwara’s 10 sacks highlighted him as easily the top performer on a pathetic defense.

Is there a player that will step up next fall and make themselves a game-changer on defense?

That is the hardest assessment to make. Considering that the defense was such a weakness this past season, it’s very possible that most of the roster moves Holmes will make to create cap space will be at the expense of a porous defense that has quite a bit of improvement to make.

Tight end T.J. Hockenson is coming off a break-out season and should continue to make improvements. There is little doubt that Hockenson will be one of the main targets of the passing game.

There is also no question that as T.J. continues to become a force to reckon with, opposing defenses will be aware of him. However, the question becomes who will the Lions surround him with at receiver?

Without at least a little help on the outside, opposing defenses will concentrate heavily on Hockenson making his contributions very hard-fought. That would mean perhaps the key to next season is in the backfield.