Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff has always seemed like one of the more unassuming star quarterbacks in the NFL. He went to the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams in February 2019 only to get traded shortly thereafter and replaced with Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. Even with the Lions, after a solid second season with the team, he was far from a favorite when it came to fantasy football picks in 2024.
Now, he’s getting some respect. There’s a new tally out of the best quarterbacks in the NFL following the 2025, and Goff is in there.
Best NFL Quarterbacks Heading Into New Season
NFL expert and analyst Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report has a May 7 feature out that names the NFL’s best quarterbacks going into the 2025 season. In the feature, he notes that the high-profile quarterbacks of the 2025 NFL draft, such as Cam Ward, haven’t quite earned their stirpes to be considered top quarterbacks in the NFL yet. But, others have absolutely earned that title.
With the draft finally over, “This feels like an appropriate time to gauge the elite at the most critical position in American team sports,” Gagnon states. “Using the old eyeball test along with a wide array of common, rate-based and advanced statistics from Pro Football Reference and Stathead, here’s how we view the NFL’s top 10 quarterbacks as the next phase of the 2025 offseason gets underway.”
Gagnon praises 12 quarterbacks in the NFL, and Goff comes in at No. 7 on the tally. Sure, he could be higher, but considering that he wasn’t even in the conversation a few years ago, it’s a step in the right direction.
Gagnon has some kind words for Goff but is also a bit harsh, stating that the quarterback is “unique to this section of the list because he doesn’t have the trajectory of the younger quarterbacks surrounding him on both sides. And frankly, it wouldn’t take more than an awful 2025 campaign to cause him to disappear entirely from this list in 2026 a la Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford.”
However, Gagnon says that Goff is wowing with his numbers. He was the NFC’s highest-rated passer in 2024, completing 72.4 percent of his throws. He also has a 128.9 passer rating on third down.
2025 ‘Critical’ for Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions
Goff and the Lions weren’t able to get past the Washington Commanders in January, as Lions fans sharply remember. But, hopefully that will change this season.
“Is it concerning that the 30-year-old threw three interceptions in a dud playoff loss to the Commanders? For sure,” Gagnon stated. “The Lions will need him to improve on his career playoff passer rating of 85.1 or that regular-season success from the last few years won’t amount to much. This is another case in which 2025 will be critical.”
It’s worth noting that a second article about the best quarterbacks in the NFL for 2025 from CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin names Goff No. 9.
“His steady, resilient hand finally proved too shaky in the Lions’ stunning early-playoff exit, and now he’s without revered play-caller Ben Johnson,” Benjamin noted. “Still, his old-school pocket passing has survived similar changes before. And Detroit still affords him one of the NFL’s best offensive lineups.”
