No news right now is not necessarily bad news regarding Jared Goff and his looming contract extension with the Detroit Lions. But the longer it goes without being done, people may start getting antsy and concerned.
As is well-known by know, Kirk Cousins signed a big contract with the Atlanta Falcons on Monday (four years, $180 million, $100 million guaranteed). It's not necessarily surprising he got that kind of deal, even coming off a torn Achilles, or even that the Falcons gave it to him.
Any idea Cousins' new contract is any sort of fresh template for Goff's contract extension, as put out there by Mike Valenti of 97.1 The Ticket on Monday, is a reach.
"If that’s the Goff deal, don’t you do it right now? I wouldn’t hesitate." Valenti said.
Contract extension projections for Goff have already widely been in the four-year, $180 million ($45 million a year) range, so Cousins' deal (leaving aside the specific structure of the guaranteed money) is not going to be impactful to Goff's extension.
The Lions have always been risking the cost of Goff's extension going up the longer they wait, and it may not be done rising.
Kirk Cousins' contract stands to raise the price of Jared Goff's extension
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! took a look the ripple effect of Cousins' contract on the NFL quarterback landscape. Goff and every other future quarterback contract extension landed prominently, of course.
"Cousins’ deal with the Falcons is going to weigh on the Goff extension talks. Not only is Goff younger (29), he has achieved considerably more in the postseason than Cousins. And what once looked like it could be a $50 million per year price tag for the Lions quarterback is now essentially assured of it."
"Two prominent agents with a history of doing quarterback deals said Monday night that given Cousins’ deal, Goff’s floor should start inside the top-five quarterback deals. If (Trevor) Lawrence and (Dak) Prescott get their deals done first and reset the market, that would put Goff’s average salary floor in the range of $52 million… if he doesn’t give the Lions some kind of discount."
On that final note from Robinson, Goff absolutely should not give the Lions a discount. If he can get $50 million, or a little more, per year, he should do it. The question of if he's worth that is natural, but if it's what his market value is his agent should not hesitate to make the case he should get it.
Over 11 career games against the Lions, much of that over his six seasons with the Vikings of course, Cousins is 8-3 with 23 touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 72.6 percent of his passes. As FanSided's Mark Powell suggested, in his exit to the Falcons he may have screwed the Lions over one last time-by driving Goff's asking price up a notch or two.