Over the last four seasons, no NFL quarterback has more passing yards or touchdowns than Jared Goff. Still, for any number of reasons (some of which do make sense) the Detroit Lions' signal caller will never been seen as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
FanSided recently collected grades from 50 of its NFL experts, using a 12-point scale to grade every quarterback in the league. With an aggregate grade for each quarterback, a subsequent 1-93 ranking was put together.
Goff landed about where you would expect, No. 13 overall in a large Tier 3 (No. 9-19 overall in the ranking) described as "Strong QB1."
Our own Candace Pedraza provided the assessment of Goff.
"Jared Goff makes up for his biggest weakness (lack of mobility when things fall apart up front) with an unbelievable amount of accuracy....Goff, a five-time Pro Bowler with the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions, remains one of the most consistent pocket passers in the league. Detroit needs a balanced, boring signal caller to manage its electric offense in 2026, and Goff remains just that."
Goff is what he is at this point in his career. He probably can't beat your active and spry grandmother in a 40-yard dash, but from the pocket he is a surgeon who can recognize and beat blitzes as well as any quarterback in the league.
Area Jared Goff has to clean up to rise in QB ranking is old hat
Lions head coach Dan Campbell told Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer "nobody makes a more accurate throw under duress" than Goff, Scott Barrett of Fantasy Points offered a stark rebuttal.
Per Barrett, over the last three seasons, no quarterback has more of a difference in EPA/dropback from a clean pocket (+0.43; first) vs. when pressured (-0.42; 28th) than Goff. Only a couple quarterbacks (Geno Smith and Joe Flacco) are even close when it comes to that gap, and in 2026 they're not company any quarterback wants to be in.
Defenders will counter with how Goff was top-10 in completion percentage when under pressure last season, and his overall numbers remained quite good behind a struggling offensive line last season. But when it comes to advanced metrics like EPA, all completions are not created equal.
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Every quarterback has a drop-off in efficiency/proficiency when pressured compared to when he's kept clean. But Goff goes from elite when kept clean to virtually unplayable when pressured, and the Lions' effort to fix the offensive line this offseason surely had that as one of the core tenants.
How much of a difference it will make is the question. When the Lions' offensive line was one of the best in the league, Goff was still awful when pressured. So that drop-off is not going away, and it's about reducing the number of times an immobile pocket passer is under duress.
Current questions at center and left guard for the Lions' offensive line makes it easy to wonder if Goff will see a reduction in the amount of pressure that comes via the most direct line to him.
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