Jared Goff is just fine with people writing the Detroit Lions off after last week's blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills.
"You love when the vultures start coming out," Goff said Wednesday, Sept. 23. "Guys’ character really emerges and I know our guys in this locker room and you can see those guys stand tall and be who they are and stand in the fire and take the shots and still fight right through it. Yeah, it’s fun."
At 1-1, the Lions are about where most predicted they'd be two games into the season.
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They beat the New Orleans Saints at home in their opener, albeit in a closer game than anticipated,
and lost to the Bills last week in convincing fashion. But they've given up 71 points in two games, second most in the NFL, and have looked far too ordinary at times on offense.
That combination has left plenty of outside observers wondering if the Lions, the preseason favorites to win the NFC North, still are Super Bowl material.
And even as Goff tried to downplay his comments moments after making them Wednesday, insisting he doesn't feel the vultures circling over head, he's been in the NFL long enough to know they're there.
"I think after a long weekend you can kind of hear a lot and I think your friends are texting you, your family’s texting you and I’m not saying this is the case for me, but I understand how it works across the locker room," he said. "I think it’s nice to get back in the hole, get back in our bubble and go back to work."
The Lions host the New York Jets on Sunday, Sept. 27, in a game most pegged as an easy win to start the season.
The Jets haven't had a winning record since 2015, haven't made the playoffs since 2010 and are starting journeyman Geno Smith at quarterback.
But after watching the Jets (1-1) beat the Tennessee Titans in their opener and nearly upset the Green Bay Packers last week, Lions coach Dan Campbell scoffed at a suggestion this was a trap game.
"Our players know exactly what's coming in here cause [Jets coach Aaron Glenn was here for four years as defensive coordinator]," Campbell said.
Glenn was Campbell's first hire when he got the job as Lions coach in January of 2021. The two spent one season together as teammates with the Dallas Cowboys, were assistants on the same staff with the New Orleans Saints, and Glenn helped the Lions reach the NFC championship game in 2023 and win a franchise-record 15 regular-season game a year later.
Glenn told New York reporters Wednesday he'll always be appreciative of Campbell for giving him an opportunity and still considers the Lions coach a "really good friend [and] really good person."
"I know how that program is ran and I know that we have a challenge," Glenn said. "We have a challenge. I mean, just like every week, but I can sit back and hear him right now saying certain things. But it’ll be a good challenge for us and we’ll be up for it. We’ll be ready."
The Lions have changed offensive coordinators twice since Glenn left for the Jets, hiring John Morton to call plays last season and replacing him with Drew Petzing this season. But the nucleus on offense – Goff, receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs – is largely the same that Glenn coached against every day in practice, and Lions players said the Jets defense is built on Glenn's same philosophies.
With so much familiarity both ways, Campbell said he expects "a knockout, 60-minute brawl," and Goff predicted Sunday's game will come down to the fundamentals.
"I don’t know if there is any edge," he said. "I think both sides would say we’re going to tell you what we’re running and stop it. I’m sure he would say the same thing and we would say the same thing. With that being said, they’re going to do some things that they’re going to try to fool us with and we’ll have some things we’ll try to fool them with. But at the end of the day it’s who executes, who does the best handling situations and who’s the best late in the game and in the red zone, third down."
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 knows vultures are already circling Lions – and he loves it
