ESPN’s Bill Barnwell dug deep to find some potential replacements for Tom Brady, including Lions’ quarterback Jared Goff.
First reported on Saturday and now official via his social media post Tuesday morning, Tom Brady has announced his retirement (without writing any iterations of the actual word “retirement”) after 22 NFL seasons. That will put the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the market for a quarterback this offseason.
In the wake of the news he would retire, speculation on who could replace Brady in Tampa Bay was natural. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell (Insider link, subscription required) outlined some options, and went pretty deep to do so. Lions quarterback Jared Goff made the list (h/t to SI.com).
"A less expensive option from the top of the 2016 draft would be Goff, who had an uneven season after being unceremoniously jettisoned to Detroit in the Matthew Stafford trade. Goff’s final numbers — a 67.2% completion percentage, 19 touchdown passes, eight interceptions — look fine, but he averaged just 6.6 yards per attempt and posted a Total QBR of 39.7, right between Taylor Heinicke and Davis Mills.”Goff is realistically more of a reclamation project than a plug-and-play starter at this point. It’s clear he has his limitations, but he also has size and a good arm,” Barnwell writes. “When he is playing confidently and has the right players around him, he can produce spectacular numbers, as we saw during his best days with the Rams. Goff is not going to excite Bucs fans, but he might be the best option available at a reasonable price.”"
Jared Goff is an incredibly unlikely replacement for Tom Brady
Upon acquiring him from the Rams in the Matthew Stafford trade last offseason, in the interest of creating cap space for 2021, the Lions restructured Goff’s contract. That move added $5 million in cap charges each year from 2022-2024, and pushed the dead money hit to cut him before June 1, 2022 up to $30.5 million. A trade before June 1 would soften that dead cap hit to $15 million.
On the whole, Goff’s first season as a Lion wasn’t very good. But over his last five starts of the season, he had a 107.1 passer rating. With good pieces around him, he can be effective. But as the Buccaneers now officially seek a replacement for Brady, Goff will simply not be high on their list–if he’s on it at all.