Jared Goff remains elite at one style of throw
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.
Per 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.
