Brad Holmes gives canned, expected update on Jared Goff contract talks

In the immediate wake of the Detroit Lions agreeing to contract extensions foSa Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported a deal was not "imminent' with quarterback Jared Goff. and even with talks going on "no deal is close at this time."

That report from Schefter was on April 24, just before the draft. There's still plenty of time to get a deal done with Goff, and it's only May. But the clock is ticking, slowly but surely, and when dealing in the kind of years and money you are with a quarterback it's automatically a complicated negotiation.

The Lions would probably prefer to get a deal done fairly quickly, before some other quarterbacks get their new deals this offseason and drive Goff's market value up. Goff's side would surely rather wait a bit, and see what happens with those other quarterbacks.

Lions general manager Brad Holmes was on "Costa and Jansen with Heather" on 97.1 The Ticket Thursday morning. Goff's contract extension was an easy, and practically automatic, topic.

Brad Holmes gives expected, say next-to-nothing update on Jared Goff contract talks

"Yeah, look, first and foremost, he’s earned an extension,” Holmes said. “It’s important, it’s a high priority for us. Both sides are working really, really hard. These things just take time......The whole process of budgeting and preparation and all that that goes into it, in a perfect world we'd have had all three of them done bang, bang, bang. But these things take a while, especially with the quarterback market, but I do have faith that it's gonna get done."

Holmes was then asked what specifically makes a quarterback contract more complicated.

“There’s some uniqueness there in some different areas, but still, he’s performed at a high level. You look at what the results have been, and we still feel good about where he’s at,” Holmes said. “He’s not one of the guys that was recently drafted and all that stuff. But that’s even better because we even have more of a body of work to examine and analyze."

“All those things, you look at all of it. But, again, we’ve done a lot of work—again, both sides have—we’ve done a lot of work, dialogue’s been consistent. There hasn’t been just dead periods and all that stuff.....You gotta think about what can we do now, and what are the impacts on the future, as well. And we look at all of it, because we said all along, when Dan and I first got here, we’re looking to build sustained success, and that’s still the goal.”

Goff is of course entering the final year of his current contract, with a $32.3 million cap hit (ninth-highest among quarterbacks for 2024 right now). The top of the quarterback market is now above $50 million per year, and Goff has a case to ask for somewhere around that $50 million a year mark.

"He's earned an extension."
"It's a high priority for us."
"Both sides are working really, really hard."
"These things just take time."
"We're looking to build sustained success."

Nothing Holmes said on the radio Thursday morning about the contract talks with Goff was particularly enlightening, as could've and should've been expected.

Savvy front offices don't negotiate through the media. Holmes checked all the buzzword boxes when he could've anticipated he'd be asked where contract talks are with Goff.