Lions head coach Dan Campbell takes opportunity to back Jared Goff again

As a big name option comes to the surface again, Lions head coach Dan Campbell was sure to take an opportunity to back Jared Goff.

The first day of the NFL league meetings in Phoenix was overtaken by Lamar Jackson’s tweet thread where he said he asked the Baltimore Ravens to trade him on Mar. 2 and they won’t “meet” his value. The Detroit Lions have lingered as a possible suitor, and it ramped up again on Monday since Jackson easily lands as an upgrade over Jared Goff.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell has publicly backed Goff before, while also acknowledging the need to consider the future after Goff under center back at the NFL Combine. The fact the Lions have not added a legit No. 2 quarterback, no offense to the freshly re-signed Nate Sudfeld, hangs over the Lions’ situation at quarterback for 2023.

As SI.com noted, the financials to make a quick pivot from Goff to Jackson might not be so bad for this year.

Dan Campbell makes sure to take opportunity to back Jared Goff again

Campbell surely could not ignore the buzz Jackson created on Monday. Speaking to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero at the Annual League Meetings, the Lions head coach made sure to take the public opportunity to back Goff.

"Listen, feel really good about it. Goff? Love Goff. Goff’s our guy, man,” Campbell said when asked about the Lions’ QB situation. “I think he’s proven over the last two years that, man, he’s made for us. He’s had to endure a lot, just like all of us have. I thought he played his best football last year, and I think he’s gonna come out and play some of the best this year. Feel good about it.So I love our quarterback position right now.”When you’ve got a quarterback, you hold onto those guys, man,”"

If you were counting, and why wouldn’t you have been, that was three “mans” from Campbell to Pelissero about Goff. No knock on Campbell though, because of how refreshingly candid he is compared to most other NFL head coaches. We all have words we use to express certain things, and “man” is one of Campbell’s words to express strong feeling.

Not that Campbell would say anything else, even if the Lions were planning to pursue Jackson or practically locked into drafting a quarterback in April. But he wants the world to know Goff is his guy, and that’s certainly better than being vague or ambiguous about it. Vague and ambigous words don’t seem to be in Campbell’s vocabulary anyway.