Lions quarterback Jared Goff wins NFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 6

Left to carry the offense after David Montgomery's injury exit left them thin at running back, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff stepped up in a big win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday (30-for-44 for 353 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions; 107.5 passer rating).

Goff's passer rating was fifth-best in the league for Week 6, and his 78.7 QBR came in No. 1. He completed passes to 10 different players, led by Amon-Ra St. Brown's 12 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown.

For that effort, Goff has been named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 6. This is the fifth time he has won the award in his career, and his second time as a Lion (Week 13 of the 2021 season). He's also up for FedEx Air Player of the Week for Week 6, and you can vote for him here.

On Wednesday, via Pride of Detroit, Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand talked about Goff's mental processing in concert how well he's throwing the ball.

"I think that he’s playing mentally at a very fast level,” Engstrand said. “The processing is like, ‘Okay, here we go.’ It’s going from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 or whatever it needs to be. He’s seeing the defense pre-snap, he’s having an idea of what needs to happen, what he’s expecting. So I think there’s a lot of diagnosing that’s going on pre-snap that’s really putting him in a position to have that success post-snap. And he’s throwing the heck out of the ball.”

Jared Goff is garnering early MVP buzz

Everywhere you look, Goff is getting some buzz for league MVP now. Dan Patrick had the Lions' signal caller as a guest on his show Tuesday, and took up leading the MVP campaign.

"The MVP campaign starts right now for you,” Patrick said. “Are you okay with that?”
“Sure, yeah. I won’t be doing much of it, but you can take care of that for me, Dan,” Goff replied.

With permission (or deference) from Goff, Patrick went on to publicly launch the MVP campaign.

"Okay, last 16 games: Lions are 13-3,” Patrick said. “Jared Goff has completed almost 67 percent of his passes, he’s thrown for 28 touchdowns, just four interceptions. He’s thrown for 4,100 yards. So this is the last 16 games, going 13-3. And, through six games this season, he is one of two quarterbacks ranked in the top five for passing yards, completion percentage, touchdowns, passer rating. The other one is Tua Tagovailoa.”

Goff is legitimately playing as well as any quarterback in the NFL right now. It's early, but if he keeps it up he will stay a legit MVP candidate and this won't be his only Player of the Week award this season.