Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions are 5-1 heading into Week 8. They are arguably the best team in the NFC and are poised to make their first Super Bowl in the franchise’s history.
The Lions will face the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. They will be without Jameson Williams, who was recently suspended by the league. In his absence, Tim Patrick will have a bigger role on the offense and hope to make the most of his opportunity. But what did Patrick have to say?
Tim Patrick Reveals Reason for Playing With Jared Goff
The Denver Broncos released Patrick before the start of the season, and he signed with the Lions’ practice squad. The 30-year-old wide receiver recently revealed that Goff was one of the reasons why he signed with the Lions.
“You could just see he either threw his guys open or threw his guys into safety, and that’s what you want out of your QB,” said Patrick. “And for the most part, he can’t really run, so he has no choice but to throw the ball.”
Patrick took a lighthearted dig at Goff’s mobility, and NFL fans had various opinions on the wide receiver’s comments. Here’s some of the fans’ comments on Reddit:
“He’s outta line, but he’s right,” said a Lions fan.
“He’s not wrong, but I find this line super funny,” said another fan about Patrick saying that Goff can’t run.
“That’s a nice way of saying Goff runs like how a newborn giraffe walks,” added another fan.
“Jared Goff is about to pop off a 99-yard TD rush and stare down Patrick the entire way,” said another fan.
“The Moped of Motor City,” said one fan about Goff.
“Confirmed that Jared Goff is not sneaky athletic,” said a Bears fan.
“Well, at least Patrick’s happy with his quarterback. Nix can move and, therefore, is not the right match even if it breaks my heart,” added a Broncos fan.
“I think this is mostly just saying that Goff doesn’t set up his receivers to die for the sake of getting the ball out,” said a Lions fan complimenting the quarterback.
Patrick missed the last two seasons of his career due to an ACL injury followed by an Achilles injury. As a result, he appreciates a quarterback like Goff, who doesn’t put his receivers in positions to take big hits by the opposing defense.
Patrick has 10 receptions for 165 yards on 12 targets in five games this season. In his last fully healthy season with the Broncos in 2021, he had 53 receptions for 734 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 13.8 yards per reception.
Goff Is Having an MVP-Esque Season
Goff was part of the trade package that sent Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams. After a subpar first season in Detroit, Goff has taken a huge leap and has been very good for them in the last three seasons.
He signed a four-year, $212 million contract extension with the Lions before the start of the season and is having an MVP-esque year. In six games, he has thrown for 1,610 yards, 10 touchdowns, and four interceptions, completing 73.6% of his passes with a passer rating of 111.5.
Goff has the second-best passer rating in the league, behind only Lamar Jackson. He leads the NFL in yards per pass attempt with 9.3, trailing only Geno Smith and Jordan Love in passing yards per game with 268.3.
The Lions are 5-1 and have a real shot at being the first seed in the NFC. If Patrick Mahomes and Jackson struggle a little bit, Goff will have a chance of winning the first MVP award of his career. Currently, he has the fourth-best odds to win the award behind Jackson, Mahomes, and Josh Allen.
Goff’s Quarterback+ Ranking
Everyone has their own opinion and method for ranking quarterbacks, but at Pro Football Network, we’ve developed a new stats-based approach, the PFN Insights QB+ Metric.
Our metric uses numbers that are fully available through 2019, so that is where the historical context comes from. However, for this article, we use a blend of their 2023 and 2024 scores to produce our output. As we move through the season, the blend will shift more in favor of 2024 until 2023 is completely removed by mid-season.
We’re molding stats that include success rates when pressured, third-down conversion rate, and pocket production. The added wrinkle in this PFN Insight is quantifying “clutch.”
Defining “clutch” performance is an imperfect science. In this case, we’ve used timeliness-based stats to account for score and situation.
Currently, Goff is ranked second in PFN’s Quarterback Rankings for the season.
His 2024 season may not ultimately reach the heights of what we see from Jackson, but his performance is equally as remarkable for other reasons. There have not been many quarterbacks in the NFL who have been written off as many times as Goff, and for him to be prospering again is great to see. His performances over the last three years have shown year-over-growth, and this is the best of them by a decent distance.
Goff is performing beautifully whether he is throwing from a clean pocket or when under pressure, ranking above the 80th percentile for both in our database. Accordingly, his nYPA of 8.6 ranks second in the league, while he is also performing well in clutch situations. The only area where he could further improve significantly is on third downs, where he ranks 14th, converting just 36% of his opportunities.
