Ex-Cal QB Aaron Rodgers in Awe of Ex-Cal QB Jared Goff

Rodgers says Goff doesn’t get enough credit for his remarkable run of high-completion percentage

Aaron Rodgers, wearing the No. 8 he wore at Cal / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Four-time MVP and former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers is having his struggles with the Jets this year, but he still knows what it takes to be considered the best player in the NFL.

He noted during an episode of The Pat McAfee Show that former Cal star Jared Goff does not seem to be getting enough credit for what he’s doing with the Lions this season.

“What he’s done is nothing less than sensational,” Rodgers said of Goff.

Rodgers was floored by the numbers Goff is putting up for the 7-1 Lions, especially recently. 

“It’s bananas,” Rodgers said of Goff’s stats.

The Jets quarterback could not recall exactly what those wow numbers have been, but the main ones are these:

---Over the past six games, the Lions have scored more touchdowns (26) than the number of incompletions Goff has thrown in that same span (24).

---Goff has completed better than 70 percent of his passes in each of he pas six games, all Lions victories, and has completed a least 80 percent of his passes in each of the past three games.

---During Detroit’s current six-game winning streak, Goff has completed 82.8 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and one interception.

“I don’t think you can give Jared enough credit,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers impressed by Jared Goff's season in Detroit https://t.co/qEM1P5ZvFy

— Cal Sports Report (@jakecurtis53) November 7, 2024

Rodgers called Goff “Mr. Two Gloves,” because he wore gloves on both hands in the Lions victory over the Packers in pouring rain in Green Bay.

The gloves may be the reason Goff did not struggle in the rain like he did while he was a Cal.  As a Cal freshman, Goff simply could not grip the ball during a downpour in Eugene, Oregon, during a game against Oregon.  He went 3-for-6 for 11 yards before he was yanked from the game in the first quarter because he simply could not hold the wet ball.

An ESPN story this week listed two players as midseason MVPs – Goff and Lamar Jackson of the 7-3 Ravens.  Jackson is probably the leader at the moment with his ridiculous passer rating of 123.2, which would be a single-season NFL record if he maintains that pace.  It would break the record of 122.5 set by Rodgers in 2011 when he won his first MVP award.

Rodgers still holds the career passer-rating record a 103.0, just ahead of Patrick Mahomes, with Jackson closing in at No. 3. Goff is 18h on tha career passer-rating list, but he is moving up.  Goff is second to Jackson his year.

Jackson was outstanding on Thursday when he threw four touchdown passes witth no inerceptions in the one-point win over he Bengals, and Goff gets his shot to impress people when the Lions face the 6-3 Texans on he road on Sunday.

ESPN said this about Goff:

Uncertainty clouded Goff's future when he went 3-10-1 after being traded to the Lions in 2021. Four seasons later, Goff says he's playing his best ball yet, as Detroit's 7-1 record is the team's best since 1956. Over the past six games, the Goff-led Lions offense has scored 26 touchdowns. In that same span, he has only 24 incompletions. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Detroit is the only NFL team since at least 1933 to have more offensive TDs than incomplete passes over six games. -- Lindsey Thiry, national NFL reporter

Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of Rodgers’ appraisal of Goff is hat he did not mention that both he and Goff are Cal alumni.

Both left Cal with one year of college eligibility remaining and both were taken in the first round of the NFL draft.

Rodgers’ final season at Cal was 2004, and Rodgers is 10 years older than Goff, who turned 30 last month. That gap will be 11 years when Rodgers turns 41 next month.