Jared Goff gets more doses of faint praise in The Athletic's quarterback rankings

Full disclosure. I'm generally low on Lions quarterback Jared Goff as a raw talent. But the evidence is there. If he's pressured or has to move in the pocket, it's ugly, and uglier than a lot of quarterbacks-no further elaboration is required. To mention that may get you called a "Jared Goff hater", though.

That said, Goff has been very good the last couple seasons. The last two-plus seasons, if we're being fully truthful. The difference in his place among his peers in quarterback rankings can be stark though, as expected. Things can be shaped to highlight what Goff does well, or where he's subpar is easy to use against him.

Mike Sando of The Athletic is out with his quarterback rankings for 2024 (subscription required), which is also a tiered ranking. Goff climbed from Tier 3 in 2023 to Tier 2 this year, and he's No. 10 overall in the Top-30-ranking. He's in Tier 2 of Sando's rankings for the first time since 2019.

A large part of what Sando does with these kind of things is getting quotes (though anonymous) from NFL people.

Jared Goff gets more doses of mixed praise in The Athletic QB rankings

Sando noted Goff's "long road back" since he was last Tier 2 in the rankings, which was when he was coming off a Super Bowl with the Rams.

Then we get into the quotes Sando got about the Lions' signal caller.

"One defensive coordinator called Goff a better, younger version of Kirk Cousins: lacking in mobility, but proficient in identifying defenses before the snap, getting his team in the right plays, working through progressions and minimizing mistakes."

“It is set up so that it’s right in front of him, and he doesn’t have to make a lot of decisions on the field,” another defensive coordinator said. “They’ve got a good run game, they have a bunch of checkdowns to the tight end, they’ve got good players around him. He just has to go 1-2-3 and fire the ball. But he is another guy who, if it came down to a two-minute drive, I wouldn’t feel great about him in that situation.”

"He got an offense he can run, and he’s getting rid of the ball,” a head coach said. “I don’t think he ever wins the big one, but he played well enough last year to go from a 3 to a 2. He has to have the weapons around him. He can’t do it by himself.”

"Goff is somewhere between Tier 2 and Tier 3 for me,” an assistant GM said. “He has been really good, but I think he has a great system and good personnel. I’m not sure he carries the team. He is a traditional pocket guy that needs protection but makes all the throws. He lacks mobility, and I’m not sure he can carry the team exclusively.”

A defensive coach also compared Goff to Tua Tagovailoa, in terms of production at "near elite" or "borderline replacement" levels "based on what's around them".

It's well-known what Goff is as a quarterback, and what he is not; good, bad or at times ugly. So ultimately, none of the sentiment from NFL people in Sando's rankings is surprising.