PALM BEACH, Fla. – It has been a wild offseason in the NFL with a lot of movement at the quarterback position. Detroit wasn't involved in any of the trade talk or free agency movement, as they are happy with veteran quarterback Jared Goff.
There's also been speculation on whether the Lions might add a young quarterback to the roster in this year's NFL Draft to learn under Goff and potentially take over as the quarterback of the future.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes didn't rule out the possibility taking a quarterback in this year's draft when speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Florida Tuesday, but he did reiterate his belief in Goff and Goff's ability to lead this franchise for the foreseeable future.
"Jared played good football for us late in the year," Holmes said. "So we have a lot of optimism about Jared going forward. We have a quarterback. If you're asking why did we not kind of hop into that (free-agent quarterback market), we're happy with where Jared's at right now. We're looking forward for him to have a productive year for us."
After a slow start in his first season in Detroit last year, Goff had a stellar second half of the season after head coach Dan Campbell took over play-calling and tight ends coach Ben Johnson took on passing-game coordinator duties. Over his last six starts after the changes, Goff had an 11-to-two touchdown-to-interception ratio with a passer rating north of 100.0. Detroit was 3-2-1 in those contests.
Johnson has since been named Detroit's offensive coordinator, and Holmes is confident Goff can pick right up where he left off last season with the weapons added around Goff so far this offseason, with more potentially to come still in free agency and in next month's NFL Draft.
Holmes was asked how comfortable he was having Goff as his quarterback in 2023, and what he thinks he has in Goff from a long-term standpoint.
"A starter that can be productive for us," Holmes responded. "I think that's what we have. Whatever the case is, Jared is our quarterback and we're going to make sure he's put in the best position to succeed and we'll let the chips fall from there."
Holmes was the director of college scouting for the Rams when that franchise selected Goff No. 1 overall in 2016. He also preferred the compensation package from the Rams over other teams in the Matthew Stafford trade, in part, because Goff was included in the Rams' proposal.
"Obviously, the quarterback position is extremely critical to any team's success. That goes without saying," Holmes said.
"But again, we have a lot of confidence in Jared. Again, we're all about putting him in the best position to succeed and if we do that, and our confidence we have in him, we talked about the continuity we have coming back with not only the receivers, coaching staff and offensive line, we're very confident in Jared."
