3 surprise standouts so far in Detroit Lions training camp

2. QB Jared Goff

What a difference a year makes. By all accounts, and all evidence, Goff is far more comfortable and a lot more confident in his second training camp as a Lion. He’s taking ownership of the offense as a leader and the starting quarterback should, and teammates are noticing.

"Out here the first week, four or five days of practice you see it. He comes up to the line, if we have an alert play, and he just alerts it right away. He already sees it. That allows us to play fast, that allows us to get up on the line of scrimmage,” Decker told the media in the clip. “He’s helping the entire offense by taking ownership of it. He’s out there throwing dimes, we know he throws dimes. We get excited, we give him time, we know big plays will be made.” I think he’s taken a lot of ownership to be able to come up there and run the show, (to say) ‘(I) got it, don’t even need anybody to make any calls, I’m going to run the show.’ It started in OTA’s. We saw it in OTA’s, now we see it full speed out here. Hell yeah. We need that,"

It’s not a secret how Goff lacked a good connection with former offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn, and that his connection with new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is far better. Johnson is making it a priority to get the best Goff has to offer, even looking back with Goff at some old Rams’ film this offseason.

Some Lions fans will certainly say, “let’s see it during the season” and “of course he looks good right now” to chalk up Goff as an overly positive training camp storyline. But a tone can absolutely be set during training camp, and Goff is projecting a totally different vibe this year.