{"id":228925,"date":"2025-07-23T05:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/228925\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T05:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:50:11","slug":"is-jared-goff-underrated-lions-embracing-their-not-too-flashy-qb-as-offense-shifts-out-of-ben-johnsons-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/228925\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jared Goff underrated? Lions embracing their \u2018not too flashy\u2019 QB as offense shifts out of Ben Johnson’s hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLEN PARK, Mich. \u2014 Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/a> understands the public perception.<\/p>\n

The wide receiver doesn\u2019t agree with it, but he doesn\u2019t expect it to change.<\/p>\n

Jared Goff, the 2016 first overall draft pick whom the Los Angeles Rams would later trade to the Detroit Lions, is underrated.<\/p>\n

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St. Brown believes it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s been underrated his whole career and I don\u2019t think that\u2019ll ever go away,\u201d St. Brown told Yahoo Sports from training camp practice. \u201cYou look at a guy like Josh Allen<\/a>: He\u2019s big, can run, crazy arm strength. You look at a guy like Lamar [Jackson]<\/a>: fast, one of the best running quarterbacks you\u2019ve ever seen, does stuff on the field that only he can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Patrick Mahomes<\/a>: His arm angles, the throws he makes, just unconventional, his ability to win big games.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Goff?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at a guy like Jared, I mean he\u2019s not too flashy,\u201d St. Brown says of his quarterback. \u201cBut he\u2019s consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Goff\u2019s consistency led the Lions to a 15-2, best-in-NFC record last season.<\/p>\n

The Lions hope Goff\u2019s consistency will help them transition from Ben Johnson, their offensive coordinator and play-caller the prior three seasons, to now-OC John Morton. They\u2019ll hope Goff can maintain consistency even as the quarterback and his linemen re-divide protection calls in the wake of four-time Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow\u2019s retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, Goff\u2019s consistency proved potent.<\/p>\n

While he may not have dominated highlight reels to pace Jackson, Allen or Mahomes, Goff did put up numbers that were both his career-best marks and also challenged his counterparts for best in the league.<\/p>\n

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Only Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow<\/a> topped Goff\u2019s 4,629 passing yards, and only Jackson surpassed his 111.8 passer rating. Goff\u2019s 37 total touchdown passes ranked fourth overall, while his 54.7% success rate (a metric that awards players who on first down gain at least 40% of yards to go; on second at least 60%; and on third and fourth 100%) was best in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game has slowed down for him, from a protection standpoint,\u201d Morton told Yahoo Sports. \u201cBeing in Year 3 in the offense, you should be hitting on all cylinders, and that\u2019s what he was doing last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Morton, the goal is to recapture that magic. Morton returns to the staff he served on in 2022 looking to accentuate his players\u2019 matchups and skill sets, with extra emphasis on teaching the offense from the quarterback\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

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Morton wants all of his offensive players to learn the quarterback responsibilities even if they won\u2019t all have to act on that knowledge. He wants skill players to understand when they\u2019re facing man defense and when it’s zone; when to anticipate one high safety and when it’s two.<\/p>\n

\"DETROIT,<\/p>\n

Jared Goff enters this season with a new offensive coordinator after posting career-highs in the 2024 campaign in TD passes (37) and accuracy (72.4 percent). (Photo by Kevin Sabitus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Kevin Sabitus via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every receiver can do that, but the great ones I\u2019ve been around \u2014 they see it just like the quarterback,\u201d Morton said. \u201cThe game slows down for them and they play free.\u201d<\/p>\n

That quarterback perspective, paired with technician-level routes, have helped make St. Brown \u201ctrustworthy\u201d to Goff, Morton said.<\/p>\n

[Get more Lions news: Detroit team feed<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Morton is implementing his wrinkles into the game plan while offensive line coach Hank Fraley continues to carry run game coordinator responsibilities. How will the two backgrounds mesh?<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn Johnny’s background, he likes to throw the ball,\u201d left tackle Taylor Decker<\/a> told Yahoo Sports. \u201cThat’s kind of what the league has been going toward recently. But us, the Lions, we run the ball a lot. We run the ball a lot on third down, third-and-long. We go for it on fourth down a lot. So we have that luxury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the bulk of what you’re going to see that’s different with him is his pass-game route concepts. But still there are things that we’ve been good at here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things at which the Lions have been good and Goff has been good.<\/p>\n

Lions teammates and coaches look at Goff and, in some ways, believe in him for the same reasons others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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That unassuming, unflappable, not-spectacular-to-a-point-that\u2019s-almost-spectacular quarterback of theirs?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a superstar, but he\u2019s not a diva,\u201d Decker said. \u201cAnd I say that endearingly, in a positive light: He\u2019s just like a regular guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And one destined, the Lions believe, to be perpetually underrated. A club that leans into its underdog mentality wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like he\u2019s always going to be underrated no matter what he does,\u201d St. Brown said. \u201cEven if he wins the Super Bowl MVP, there\u2019s still going to be people saying stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what gets him going. And I love that for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLEN PARK, Mich. \u2014 Amon-Ra St. Brown understands the public perception. The wide receiver doesn\u2019t agree with it,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[4566,256,146,113,2506,7,7029,1029,1577,14987,872,147,58,6,499,6718,27844,19192,4378],"class_list":{"0":"post-228925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-amon-ra-st-brown","9":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-lions","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-frank-ragnow","15":"tag-jared-goff","16":"tag-joe-burrow","17":"tag-john-morton","18":"tag-josh-allen","19":"tag-lions","20":"tag-los-angeles-rams","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-patrick-mahomes","23":"tag-quarterbacks","24":"tag-st-brown","25":"tag-taylor-decker","26":"tag-the-lions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114900987076582466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}