Jared Goff might not be the NFL’s best quarterback, but the Lions signal-caller definitely has his strengths. One of Goff’s particular set of skills stands above every other quarterback, too.
Goff excels like no other QB at in-breaking routes. He did it in 2022 in Detroit, with Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson smartly designing a lot of those routes for Goff to hit in the offense. And he’s doing it once again in 2023.
Buy Lions TicketsPer NFL Next Gen Stats, Goff had an excellent Week 1 throwing in-breaking routes in the win over the Chiefs. He hit 13 of his 16 attempts, including his touchdown strike to Amon-Ra St. Brown.
The Next Gen Stats passing chart nicely illustrates how well Goff paints the strike zone over the middle of the field.
Jared Goff completed 13 of 16 passes targeting in-breaking routes for 168 yards and a TD in the Lions' Week 1 victory over the Chiefs.
Goff was the only QB to earn a max-99 NGS passing score on in-breaking routes in 2022.
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— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 8, 2023
To put it in perspective, Goff was 9-for-19 on throws that weren’t targeting in-breaking routes, although at least two of those were on-target passes that were not caught.
