Teammates highlight the revival of Jared Goff compared to when he first arrived with the Lions

When he arrived in Detroit, easy to see as something of a throw-in (the Lions needed a quarterback, after all) to make the Matthew Stafford trade work, Jared Goff was a broken quarterback. The coach who had molded him, Sean McVay, had given up on him when an upgrade could be acquired.

Goff had previously never lived outside of his native California, so a Michigan fall and winter literally slapped him in the face. And for a solid chunk of that first season with the Lions, he was ripe to be benched without an injury if there had been a viable option to replace him.

Things got better late in that 2021 campaign, even amid an 1-6 start last season Goff had mostly played fine. Then, as the Lions won eight of their last 10 games, Goff had 17 touchdown passes and one interception over that span. He will carry a streak of 324 pass attempts without an interception into this season.

Goff recently said how good he feels all the way around heading into Year 3 in Detroit. He expressed similar sentiment to ESPN's Eric Woodyard, as he reflected on his revival since he first became a Lion.

But don't take Goff's words for it. Woodyard surveyed some of his teammates to get a full read.

Jared Goff's teammates have noticed how he has changed since coming t the Lions

Via Woodyard, here's a sampling of quotes from Goff's teammates about him.

"If there's anything noticeable on the field, it's the confidence," "

- C Frank Ragnow

"He's always been on fire, it's just a matter of making it happen consistently and he's been doing it," "

- OG Jonah Jackson

"Over the past few years, you can tell he's worked on so much on the mental part of the game, studying and all the extra little stuff. So what you're seeing now is he has a very large foundation of how much extra work he's put in. And it's helping him in the long run.""

- WR Kalif Raymond

"If he does what he did last year and if he keeps doing that this year, people can't say anything," "They have to say he's one of the top quarterbacks.""

- WR Amon-Ra St. Brown

Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta hadn't been around Goff before, obviously, but he has feedback about how he fits into the Lions' offense directly from his quarterback.

"He brings a lot of simplicity and he's very calm all the time," LaPorta said of Goff. "So, it's been great for me to just learn from him and pick his brain.""

Perhaps the best endorsement of Goff's revival/transformation since he first came to the Lions came from head coach Dan Campbell.

"Honestly, I feel like it's very similar to last year and I mean that in a good way..I mean, I feel the consistency, I feel the confidence. I think what I was most encouraged with was man, I wanted to see once again, the urgency, the intensity.""

- Dan Campbell, via Eric Woodyard

Goff's performance will be vital to the Lions meeting lofty expectations this season. Not that they'd say something else, but his teammates and coaches are behind him all the way.