Erik Schlitt and Jeremy Reisman from Pride of Detroit for an exclusive Q&A segment<\/a>. <\/p>\nIn the nearly 30-minute interview, he shared his vision for the Lions offense, detailing early conversations with Goff and his excitement to work with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been awesome, and he\u2019s as impressive a quarterback as I\u2019ve seen watching tape,\u201d Petzing said. \u201cI think it\u2019s one of those things where, when you\u2019re not in the division, and we played him two years ago but didn\u2019t have a ton of overlap, you see him on TV here and there and think, \u2018Oh, it seems like he\u2019s playing well.\u2019 Then, coming into the interview process and watching the tape, you really start to appreciate how good he really is and the level he\u2019s been playing at over these last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petzing continued, \u201cAs a play caller, as a coach, really at any position on offense, when you have a guy who sees the game the way he does and can operate the way he does, the rhythm, the timing, and the vision are really impressive. Having the physical tools to put the ball where it needs to be placed, with touch but also with some violence in his throwing motion, is huge. Yes, he\u2019s a pocket passer, but he\u2019s made some great plays in the keeper game on the move. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just so many things he does at a really high level that put stress on a defense. When you know a guy can see the field, check in and out of plays, get in and out of the huddle, those are little things that get taken for granted at times, but make a massive difference in how an offense operates and the success of a team. He\u2019s done that at such a high level for such a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petzing, who served as the Arizona Cardinals\u2019 offensive coordinator for the previous three seasons, has experience coaching quarterbacks with both different and similar skill sets to Goff. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s worked with Kyler Murray, who is commonly identified among the league\u2019s mobile quarterbacks, and Jacoby Brissett, who, like Goff, operates mainly from the pocket.<\/p>\n
While Petzing acknowledged that Goff is \u201ca little bit more gifted\u201d and has played at a higher level than Brissett, he also emphasized a core truth about the quarterback position — one that Goff has consistently proven, regardless of skill set.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day in this league, at some point you\u2019re going to have to win the game from the pocket,\u201d Petzing said. \u201cWhen you play a great defense, they\u2019re not going to miss on the pass rush, and if they are, they\u2019re good enough to bring five or six guys to make sure they don\u2019t. I think that\u2019s true of any quarterback in this league, and (Goff\u2019s) done that so consistently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where you get really excited as a coach. Talking to him, his love of the game, his willingness to work, to grind it out, to be demanding of his teammates, but also allow me to be demanding of him, is really special. I\u2019m just really excited to get to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schlitt and Reisman also inquired about Goff\u2019s role in the implementation of Petzing\u2019s offense. It\u2019s well known that Goff and former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who now coaches the Chicago Bears, worked together heavily on Detroit\u2019s scheme. <\/p>\n
The collaboration led to Lions being one of the NFL\u2019s top offenses during Johnson\u2019s time in Detroit.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s move to Chicago prompted the Lions to bring back former assistant John Morton to fill the offensive coordinator vacancy. The Lions maintained a high-scoring offense under Morton, but playcalling and execution issues persisted throughout the season. <\/p>\n
As a result, coach Dan Campbell stripped Morton of playcalling duties and fired him 48 hours after the regular season ended.<\/p>\n
Understanding how important the quarterback-offensive coordinator relationship is, when it comes time to developing the scheme he will roll out in Detroit, along with the preparation in the week leading up to game day, Petzing said he will lean on Goff \u201cimmensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that has to be that way with whoever the guy is. In this case, Jared is going to have the ball in his hand. He needs to know the whys, he needs to know the ins, and he needs to have a voice in it,\u201d Petzing said. \u201cHe needs to speak up, and he will do a great job of that. I know him a little bit at this point. Like (saying\u2019) I\u2019m (not) comfortable with that\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t like that. I want this.\u2019 (Or) \u2018Do we think this is good?\u2019 (or) \u2018Like, hey, push me on this.\u2019 In a lot of ways, to me, a good quarterback\u2013play caller relationship, he\u2019s another coordinator on staff. He\u2019s another coach on staff because of how much time is required to play that position at a high level, and how we don\u2019t do anything without the quarterback touching the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo everything we do has to be based around his skill set, making him comfortable, allowing him to see the game the way that he thinks he sees it best. Then I can do some things and involve some things that, \u2018hey, you haven\u2019t done this, but I think this is going to fit really well. Here\u2019s why. Here\u2019s how. Let\u2019s take a look at it. Are you seeing this the same way I do? Let\u2019s take a couple of reps of it. Oh yeah, you\u2019re on it. Or, alright, hey, you\u2019re not feeling that, we\u2019ve got other ways to go.\u2019 I think all of that is kind of the ever-evolving offense that you guys will see on the field, but that relationship, that communication, is as important as anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL scouting combine is set to take place in Indianapolis during the last week of February. At that time, Petzing will likely speak with more media, including local Lions beat reporters, as was the case last year following the Lions\u2019 hiring of Morton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing was clear: Jared Goff will play an instrumental role in implementing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,147,6,498],"class_list":{"0":"post-752943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lions","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116072263710032539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752943","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=752943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}