Could Jared Goff reset the top of the quarterback market?

No news is not necessarily bad news at this point in time. But Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes said essentially nothing in regard to Jared Goff's looming contract extension during an appearance on 97.1 The Ticket this past Thursday. Which ultimately is fine, and absolutely expected.

With the draft in the books and contract extensions done with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell, Goff's contract extension is clearly the biggest piece of business left for the Lions this offseason. Holmes acknowledged how quarterback contracts are automatically more complicated, with how money is structured, length of the deal, etc. as obvious things involved in the negotiation.

There is a fairly wild, yet mild theory out there suggesting the Lions might have little or no intent to extend Goff or pay him big money. That's very unlikely, but the longer it goes without news of a deal questions, theories and mildly hot takes will exist.

Could Jared Goff reset the top of the quarterback market?

The general consensus is that Goff will come in just below the top of the quarterback market with his new contract, in terms of per year average. Joe Burrow ($55 million), Justin Herbert ($52.5 million), Lamar Jackson ($52 million) and Jalen Hurts ($51 million) are all north of $50 million a year, so Goff would fall in as the fifth-highest paid quarterback in the league. It wouldn't be unreasonable for him to get $50 million per year in his new deal, however surface-level it ultimately is.

On the Go Long Podcast this past week, Tyler Dunne and co-host Jim Monos dove into the contract extension situations for three quarterbacks: Tua Tagovailoa, Goff and Trevor Lawrence.

In terms of who could reasonably ask for the most money out of those three, the hosts landed on Goff. Monos acknowledged the continually rising quarterback market, while suggesting none of the three should land in the same financial stratosphere as Burrow, etc. But then he acknowledged a possibility to Dunne, upon having a similar conversation a year from now.

Monos: "Tyler, Goff might be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL."

Dunne expanded on that idea.

"The case for Jared Goff. His representation, they can sit at that table and say 'where the hell were the Detroit Lions before I arrived'?

Monos added the pertinent questions of "What are you gonna do if you don't pay him?" "Who's option two?"

Dunne lauded Goff's durability and toughness, being so close to starting second Super Bowl with a second team last year and the mental toughness he has shown after being discarded by the Rams. However limited he is athletically, his overall skill set and playing style is sustainable, as Dunne noted.

Here's the full video of Dunne and Monos' conversation. The stuff focused on Goff starts at about the 21:30 mark and goes to about the 31-minute mark.

If Goff's agent is angling for him to become the highest-paid quarterback in the league, that's a significant hindrance to contract negotiations. The Lions surely don't want to go all the way there, and even if they did they'd probably want to do it on a shorter contract extension.

The entire idea Dunne and Monos talked about here with Goff and the Lions circles back to the question posed by 97.1 The Ticket's Jeff Riger.

"Who needs who more?" There's not a definitive answer, as a case can be made either way. But if the Lions believe in Hendon Hooker, site to this point basically unseen, maybe that changes the equation if contract talks with Goff drag on too much.