I don’t know if the Detroit Lions are good or not.
They were impressive on both sides of the ball in their blowout win over the Arizona Cardinals, but beating one of the NFL’s most hapless teams to break .500 heading into the bye hardly means they’re back among the NFL’s elite.
I do know Jared Goff is off to the best start of his career, though, and as underappreciated as he’s been through five weeks – Jahmyr Gibbs has generated most of the headlines for his play, and the Lions’ defensive shortcomings have sucked up most of the rest of the oxygen around this team – that’s reason to believe the Lions still could have a long playoff run in them at the end of the season.
Goff leads the NFL with 1,485 yards passing and has yet to commit a turnover
through five games. We’re a third of the way through the season, or will be after next week’s bye, and Goff is on pace to put up career highs in passing yards (5,049) and touchdowns (41) and has the highest QBR and second-highest passer rating of his career.
“Goff just is Goff,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said after watching his quarterback throw for 271 yards and three touchdowns and run for another score in Sunday’s 45-21 win over the Cardinals. “I mean, he’s as good as they come, and I’ve been so impressed with the way that he’s played these five games.”
Goff and Jayden Daniels are the only starting quarterbacks without a turnover this season, and Goff has played in two more games than Daniels and has three more wins as a starter this year.
He’s not the mid-October NFL MVP. That’s probably the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy, and Gibbs and his nine touchdowns would have a valid claim for the award on his own team.
But Goff is playing the kind of smart, productive football too few teams get from their quarterback these days. He’s a savant at the line of scrimmage. He rarely puts the ball in harm’s way. He trusts his playmakers. And when they’re not open, he mostly lives to fight another day.
Asked Sunday about his turnover-less streak that’s now reached 346 consecutive snaps, Goff admitted some luck is involved.
He lost a fumble on a sack Sunday that Juice Scruggs recovered, and I still don’t understand how the fumble he had that was returned for a touchdown in Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints was overturned on replay.
But taking care of the football has been a focal point for Goff since he was run out of Los Angeles, and it’s been a big part of the Lions’ success the past few years. The Lions have the fewest turnovers in the NFL this season (one) and have ranked outside the top six in that category just once since 2022.
“Some of them bounced your way,” Goff said. “I think I had a sack-fumble today that we landed on. But, yeah, I’ve been very conscious of that and through the last handful of years of my career tried to really focus on that and have been doing a good job of that up to this point. And again, a lot of this stuff is the way the ball bounces, but yeah, I’m proud of that right now and want to keep that going.”
The Lions have plenty of issues to sort through during this week’s bye. They need to get off to better starts offensively, and the defense still has talent issues in its back seven.
But Goff provides a peace of mind that’s invaluable, and he is as big a reason as any the Lions have kept their heads above water in what’s been a choppy start.
“He’s just gotten better every year, and here we are five in and he’s even better than last year,” Campbell said. “He’s the real deal.”
Three more thoughts on the Lions heading into the bye:
‘Scary’ movie
For as bad as the Lions’ defense has been this season – they rank last in the NFL in total and passing defense and 29th in points allowed – we’ve seen a big enough sample size now to say they have a pretty good pass rush.
The Lions had five sacks Sunday against the Cardinals to set a franchise record with 20 sacks in their first five games. They lead the NFL in sacks and rank fifth in sack percentage (9.39%). And DJ Wonnum (five sacks)., Aidan Hutchinson (four), Alim McNeill (3 ½) and Derrick Barnes (three) are all on pace to have double-digit sacks this season.
It’s highly likely one or more those pass rushers falls off the pace – Barnes’ sack Sunday came when Jacoby Brissett slid at the line of scrimmage after a pack of Lions chased him from the pocket.
But the Lions are getting consistent pressure from Hutchinson and Wonnum on the edge, and McNeill, Tyleik Williams and Skyler Gill-Howard give the Lions three capable pocket pushers in the middle.
“Just dominant," Barnes said. "I mean, you go and try to chip Hutch and double Hutch and then there you go, you got DJ on the edge, you got Alim in the middle. It’s unbelievable, I’m not going to lie. This is like, even just seeing the iPad out there and I’m just seeing the way our defensive line is attacking, it can get scary for a lot of people, man.”
It’s not close to ending, either.
The Lions play a Green Bay Packers team after the bye that’s done a good job keeping hits off Jordan Love despite its offensive line problems, then face two of the worst teams in the league at allowing pressure, the Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins, the Lions’ opponent in Week 9, and the Vikings, who they play in Week 8, have both allowed sacks on more than 10% of their pass attempts this season, the fifth- and sixth-highest rates in the league, respectively.
Christmas comes late?
At 5-0, the Vikings are one of three remaining undefeated teams in the NFL. They have a two-game lead in the NFC North and one of the best defenses in football.
But looking at their upcoming schedule, I couldn’t help but be reminded of their win over the Lions last Christmas.
The Lions and Vikings tied for last place in the North last year, but that win gave the Vikings a season sweep over the Lions. That meant the Lions got the last-place schedule this year and crossover games against the Cardinals, Tennessee Titans and New York Giants, while the Vikings got the third-place schedule and games against the 49ers, Indianapolis Colts and Washington Commanders.
The Vikings host the Colts next week after their bye and play Purdy’s undefeated 49ers a few days before Thanksgiving. The Colts (2-3) are a fairly mediocre bunch, but they’re lightyears better than the Titans team the Lions play in early December. And the 49ers are legitimate Super Bowl contenders, while the Cardinals are one of the worst teams in football.
Neither the Giants nor Commanders are very good; they tied Sunday. But at least the Commanders have their starting quarterback, the aforementioned Daniels.
That’s a huge scheduling advantage for the Lions – maybe enough to close the gap the Vikings have opened in the standings.
2026 draft impressing
I was critical of the Lions’ busted 2024 draft class a few weeks ago, but the early returns on what general manager Brad Holmes was able to do this spring are encouraging.
First-round pick Blake Miller has more than held his own as a rookie starting at right tackle, and while second-rounder Derrick Moore has been a bit player so far in the defensive line rotation, the Lions have two Day 3 picks already contributing.
Sixth-round pick Gill-Howard has played well as the Lions’ third defensive tackle – he has eight tackles, one sack and 12 quarterback pressures (more than McNeill and Williams had as rookies). And fifth-rounder Keith Abney started at safety against the Cardinals and had his first career interception.
Abney’s no lock to stay in the rotation with Brian Branch scheduled to return after the bye, but he’s got a bright future at slot cornerback (or maybe safety).
This draft will be judged on the success of Miller and Moore more than anything, but between Gill-Howard and Abney, and with fourth-round linebacker Jimmy Rolder and fifth-round receiver Kendrick Law still in the pipeline, Holmes may have found the type of late-round gems the Lions have lacked since taking Barnes and Amon-Ra St. Brown with Day 3 picks in 2021.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jared Goff flying under the radar as Detroit Lions' underappreciated weapon
