On Sunday, quarterback Jared Goff will start his 70th career regular season game as a Detroit Lion. That’s significant because he began his career starting 69 total games for the team that drafted him: the Los Angeles Rams. So by the time he walks off the field in Cincinnati, his career will officially be more Detroit Lions than it will be Los Angeles Rams.
Goff learned about this fact earlier in the week during his regular 97.1 The Ticket radio appearance. And it’s fair to say his identity has fully taken over as a Detroiter.
“I wear a lot of Carhartt. That might be part of it.”
Okay, maybe there’s some work to do there.
But when it comes to his football identity, he is more Lion than Ram.
“I’ve certainly become a Lion now in my career,” Goff told Detroit media on Wednesday. “When I look back on it, it’s going to be majority Lions. Hopefully, a lot more majority as we go on. But yeah, it’s been a fun journey here; it’s been fun to grow into and to be a part of this city. And to now, I guess flip the scale in that way is cool.”
What’s truly remarkable about this moment in Goff’s career is how his Lions and Rams careers are near mirror images of each other. In his 69 games as a Rams starter, he amassed a 42-27 record despite a 0-7 start. In his 69 games as a Lions starter, he’s 42-26-1 despite a 3-10-1 start to his career. In LA, he made the Super Bowl in his third year with the team. In Year 3 in Detroit, he made the NFC Championship game.
The obvious difference is that there has been no downfall in Detroit. While his productivity and trust from his coaching staff eroded with the Rams, the Lions have never been more confident in Goff.
“I’m telling you, the guy is playing at a very high level,” Campbell said last week during a radio appearance. “You talk about running the quarterback position, nobody’s playing it better than him right now.
The numbers certainly back that up. Goff is currently holding the highest completion percentage (73.8), passer rating (113.0), and QBR (81.7) of his entire 10-year career.
And he hopes, by the time his career is over, that his Lions’ career dwarfs his five years in Los Angeles. But how far away is that finish line? Goff isn’t ready to say.
“That’s a big question right now. I’m in Week 5. Hopefully, a long time, I don’t know. Yeah, hard to answer. I think a long time,” Goff said.
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