The Detroit Lions are the only winless team in the NFL at 0-6, just having their doors blown off by the Cincinnati Bengals. Head coach Dan Campbell has already suffered two soul-crushing defeats in his short career, and a win appears even harder to achieve with a brutal schedule over the next month.
Something has to change on the Lions, and Campbell hinted the first switch may be quarterback Jared Goff. Even though Detroit traded for Goff in the offseason, the Lions just took on his contract in the Matthew Stafford deal to get more first-round picks for a franchise that’s rebuilding.
Goff isn’t the future in Detroit. Campbell may be starting to see that as well.
“I feel like he has to step up more than he has and I think he needs to help us, just like everybody else,” Campbell said, via ESPN’s Eric Woodyard. “He’s gonna need to put a little bit of weight on his shoulders here and it’s time to step up, make some throws and do some things, but he needs help.”
Goff finished 28 of 42 passing for 202 yards with no touchdowns and an interception (67.8 rating) in Sunday’s loss. Through six games, Goff has completed 66.8% of his passes for 1,505 yards with seven touchdowns to four interceptions (86.9 rating). Goff is 17th in the NFL in passing yards, 14th in completion percentage, tied for 20th in touchdown passes, 31st in yards per attempt (6.3), and 23rd in passer rating.
The numbers — and the Lions’ winless record — signal a quarterback change could be coming. But when would that occur and who would potentially replace Goff? David Blough is the only backup quarterback on the roster, but he’s winless in five-career starts — all of which took place last year.
The bottom line is that the Lions’ franchise quarterback isn’t on the current roster. With the 2022 draft class of quarterbacks not that encouraging and Detroit in line to grab the No. 1 overall pick, the Lions may have to search elsewhere for their next franchise quarterback — or find another stop-gap signal caller like Goff and use the late first-round pick from the Rams to develop a quarterback.
Plenty of questions will need to be answered in Detroit, but the Lions may already have their answer with Goff — who is 0-13 in games started when Sean McVay isn’t his head coach.
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