Jared Goff’s camp believes the veteran quarterback will get a contract extension with the Detroit Lions early this offseason.
While we haven’t reached the Detroit Lions offseason yet—and hopefully we don’t for another month—one of the biggest questions looming over this franchise is the future at quarterback. Jared Goff is signed through the 2024 season, and the Lions drafted Hendon Hooker in the third round last year, leading some to believe Detroit is developing a succession plan for the 29-year-old quarterback.
But Goff’s agent Ryan Tollner, speaking to The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler in an excellent piece about the Lions quarterback , is confident he will get an extension early this offseason.
“They said all the right things to Jared and to me, that (this season) is not about him having to prove himself for another year,” Tollner said. “Inevitably, players always feel that way. If you don’t make a long-term commitment, then they feel like you don’t completely believe in them.”
Of course, an agent is always going to publicly state that they believe their client will get an extension. But at the same time, what Tollner said matches everything we’ve heard from this regime about Goff. Both coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have been unwavering in support for their quarterback, and while that could be easily dismissed as good PR, this regime has been particularly honest and transparent since they arrived in 2021.
“I never really deemed him as a bridge,” Holmes said at the end of the 2022 season. “I think everybody else did, but I think it’s a little bit of the recency bias he had to go through last year.”
Campbell more-or-less telegraphed an extension back in October. At the time, Goff was in the midst of MVP talk as Detroit got out to a big early lead in the NFC North.
“I don’t want to get into contract talk, what we have (negotiated), what we haven’t. All I can tell you is he’s playing at a high level, and he needs to be with us,” Campbell said.
It’s hard to know exactly what kind of numbers Goff’s camp will be seeking, but it’s always helpful to look at the most recent quarterback deals to get a sense of the market. During the 2023 offseason, Giants QB Daniel Jones got a four-year, $160 million deal, Chargers QB Justin Herbert got a five-year, $262.5 million deal, and Bengals QB Joe Burrow got a five-year, $275 million deal. Goff is older than all three of those quarterbacks, though. So it’s a somewhat different situation.
Regardless, news of an impending extension is not exactly surprising, but it is the first time we’ve heard from Goff’s side of the negotiating table.