Jared Goff has always had a knack for performing well on play-action throws. Even going back to his college days at California, Goff earned accolades for his play fakes and ability to make decisions and throws off the play-action.
Goff still does very well on play-action. He certainly did so for the Lions in 2022 — just ask Pro Football Focus.
PFF broke down several different passing plays and metrics across the league. The Lions and Goff came up ranked fifth in success in using play-action passes. No team threw more touchdowns on such plays in the regular season than Goff and his 16, too.
In Detroit, 16 of Jared Goff’s 29 touchdown passes came off play-action, the most in the NFL in the regular season.
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson smartly tailored the offense to utilize Goff’s play-action skills. They could use it even more, too; the play-action pass rate of 27.7 percent was just 18th out of 43 quarterbacks who took at least 250 snaps in 2022.
