Someone explain the Lamar Jackson love

Listening to Mike Florio of PFT as they were reviewing the Gardner trade. Florio then says that he doesn’t understand why the Lions aren’t in on Lamar Jackson. Says the Lions are settling for Goff who was just ok enough to have the Lions keep him. If the Lions really want to go for it, we need to get Jackson. He also felt like every team except KC, Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, Chargers, Philly and Jacksonville should be in on Jackson.

That got me thinking. Is Jackson that much better than Goff? The tale of the tape:

  1. Age: Goff 28. Jackson 26.

  2. Statistics: I took the two years Goff was with Detroit and the last 3 of Jackson’s career with the Ravens.

Goff: 48 TDs, 15 Ints, 3.2 TD to interception ratio. Passer rating of 95.8. Sacked 58 times in 31 games. Sack percentage of 5.1%.

Jackson: 59 TDs, 29 Ints. 2.0 TD to interception ratio. Passer rating 92.5. Sacked 93 times in 39 games. Sack percentage of 7.9%.

Goff salary (cap hit): 2023: $31M. 2024: $32M
Jackson: based on Watson’s salary cap hit would be somewhere between $45-50M per year for next 5 years.

Looking at all these numbers, I don’t get why the Lions would pursue Jackson. Yes, he is incredibly athletic. However, that athleticism comes with a price. He gets out of the pocket more, which shows he gets sacked more often and he has an injury history. IMO the OL here was built for a pocket passer, not someone like Jackson.

Finally, I can’t see why we would go with a more expensive, more injured option at QB. If the age difference were that great I could see it, but it’s 2 years. And in terms of damage to a QB, Jackson has more mileage on his body than Goff. To me, let Goff play another year. If he plays well, then extend him say another 2-3 years.

WHAT AM I MISSING HERE?

7 Likes

Its the media making a story for nothing. Holmes will not sign Jackson.

5 Likes

I’ll take a crack at it.

  • Jackson won league MVP
  • He’s played with shit receivers his entire career
  • He’s the type of player who can make a play—or two—that changes the entire course of a game
  • There’s some who still don’t think he’s hit his total upside

I think if the argument is, “He won’t last as long,” that’s sort of besides the point. Can Jackson get you more in 3 years than Goff can get you in 5 or 6? Well, then it’s worth it.

I’m against the idea mostly because I think Goff knows the system, and we have the talent around him to make him a successful quarterback. And I’m not sure Jackson is worth the money he thinks he’s worth. You’d cripple your financial future. At this point, Goff is a bargain.

But there is some merit to the argument, just not enough to take it seriously.

5 Likes

Nothing. You are smart.

The end.

6 Likes

I get the appeal of Lamar in the sense that his ceiling is MVP of the league (ceiling is quite a bit higher than Goff’s tnh) but then you crash back to reality which is that his MVP season was a long time ago now and that he’s a running QB who is getting more and more injury prone and is going to be the highest paid QB in the league.

There’s a reason why the interest in him has been mild at best, especially taking into account that you have to part with two 1sts only to make him the highest paid player in the league. I think for a franchise like Atlanta, it might be worth a swing since they’re sort of in no mans’ land but not for the Lions.

2 Likes

With what he wants in guarranteed money I wouldn’t do it, to much risk for the team and future.

1 Like

I think Baltimore gambled that no one would pay him the guarrantees he wants and whatever is offered they can match if they choose too. Similar to what BH has told players, see what is out there and give us last shot.

1 Like

The big thing is he wants to be the highest paid QB in the league and he’s not in the top 5 QBs in the league.

His ceiling is barely top 5. His mean is probably top 15.

2 Likes

Jackson would probably have a couple superbowl victories if he was gifted the loaded teams Goff has played on.

Former MVP just entering prime. And Jackson is not Cam Newton. He is mobile QB but he does not take a beating as a runner. He elusive and smart enough to know when to get down. His recent injuries were in the pocket. Baltimore has done very little to surround him offensively.

Everything has to be perfect for Goff to excel. Lucky for him the Rams and Lions have loaded up on offensive talent for him. He’s not good under pressure. Arm is mediocre. Struggles to hit WR deep without underthrow. No improvisation skills. Minimal tight window throws. There is a reason Ben Johnson was such a hot name. Goff had all day to throw to schemed wide open receivers

2 Likes

My guess is it’s the same reason Stafford never got the love and respect from the media when he was here. They love flashy players that bring big ratings to their show and they don’t look past the narrative once they’ve assigned it to a player.

Right now the National narrative is that Goff is serviceable as a starter. He plays within the offense and Isn’t selfish. He could have put up much bigger numbers but that wouldn’t have helped the offense as a whole. The reality is that Goff is a pro bowl quarterback for two different organizations now. He’s not perfect but he’s perfect for what we want to do as an offense and a team.

2 Likes

You’re missing the fact that some people were certain that Goff was a piece of garbage that required extra draft picks be sent to the Lions for being forced to take him.

Many of these people just continue to contort reality to try to fit their original take. Florio is the king of this particular group.

6 Likes

This is all true. However, I did see vast improvement in several areas of goffs game last season. He started moving around in the pocket better. He had a better feel for the rush. He started to trust his guys and put the ball out there for them to make plays. He even started to run a bit. He looked like he was running through wet cement but he was doing it. lol

I’d be ok with the lions trading for Lamar but I’m also good if they stick with Goff.

1 Like

If I remember correctly, Jackson may not have had the offensive talent around him that Goff had last year, but he sure the hell had a better defense on the other side of the ball where he didn’t feel Ike he need to score 31 points every game to win.

I could say that Goff would have won a Super Bowl last year if he had the defense that Lamar had in Baltimore.

2 Likes

No offense but I’ll be happy when this sentence stops getting thrown around so often. I swear someone says it at least once a day…even though nothing is ever perfect in the NFL and Goff has still created more years of success than failure.

4 Likes

Rams never had truly bad defenses. Goff isn’t making it out of loaded AFC vs those QBs

1 Like

Amongst statistics, I didn’t see the rushing comparison.

Lamar has a dimension that Goff just doesn’t have. Although, the cost makes me shy away from him.

I will continue to trust Brad in this, but I prefer a more traditional style of QB (except for my fantasy team.)

1 Like

Absolutely agree on him having this more than any QB in the league, not just Goff.
However his rushing skill is why I don’t want him under a high dollar guarranteed contract. 5 or 7 yr contract mostly guarranteed taking as many hits as de does makes me nervous.

Because he’s mobile and people today media and fans alike place more value on a mobile QB but the truth is that the pocket passers win more.

I think Jackson is a downgrade from Goff personally.

6 Likes

Because Florio is a Vikings fan who wants us to give up two first round picks and 200M guaranteed for a guy who can’t stay healthy and passes like shit.

8 Likes

If you sign jackson to the price he wants, then Jackson doesn’t have talent around him. Goff wasn’t the problem last year at all. To say goff has things around him to be good is pathetic. Did anyone see that pass he had at green bay?

2 Likes