PFF Explains Jared Goff's Average Grade

Was PFF too harsh grading Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff?

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff established himself as the team’s starting quarterback moving forward with a resurgent second half of the 2022 season.

He put forth a superb effort during the team’s final 10 games, leading the Lions to an 8-2 finish to the season while throwing just one interception in that span.

Goff was a topic of conversation on a recent episode of the "Pro Football Focus NFL Podcast," as hosts Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson explained why he finished with an overall grade of 72.4 and a 71.6 passing grade.

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Those numbers ranked 20th and 19th among the league, respectively.

“I like Jared Goff, I liked him coming out,” Palazzolo said. “He’s a solid NFL starter. He’s had a couple rough years in there, including 2021 with the Lions. I think Goff epitomizes the mid-tier NFL quarterback, where, and I think the PFF grade does a good job separating the quarterback from the production.”

Goff finished the season with 4,438 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Though those numbers rank among the better half of the league, Palazzolo pointed out that his lower grade was emblematic of the help received from his receivers as well as offensive coordinator Ben Johnson’s scheme.

“We’ve been raving about Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator in Detroit, and I think he’s a big factor here in Jared Goff’s season,” Palazzolo said. “The luck factor here is, Goff finishes with 24 turnover-worthy plays, that’s 3.6 percent of his drop-backs, that’s on the lower end.”

Palazzolo and Monson explained the reasoning behind the turnover-worthy plays. Though Goff had that many, he only threw seven interceptions, meaning that he was on the receiving end of some luck during the season.

“To me, it goes back to, people who think Jared Goff played better than the grade, you get the feels when you watch,” Palazzolo added. “There was a lot of touchdowns, there was a lot of good stuff, there was a lot of yards, it was an effective offense, they scored a ton of points, but I think Goff was more of a, not a passenger but he was a facilitator of a very good offense and had a little bit of luck, so the stats look good.”

The hosts pointed to Goff’s 2017 season with the Los Angeles Rams, where he produced good numbers in head coach Sean McVay’s offense. Both Palazzolo and Monson agreed that he is productive in a well-designed offensive scheme while also benefiting from situational benefits.

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Monson supported the claim with the fact that 10 of Goff’s turnover-worthy plays came on third and fourth downs. While he produced a passer rating of 107 on those downs, 43 percent of his attempts in those situations were throws short of the first down marker.

Additionally, he said that Goff had a big-time throw rate of 2.9%, which was lower than quarterbacks such as Houston’s Davis Mills, Zach Wilson of the New York Jets and New Orleans’ Andy Dalton.

“For a guy who’s reasonably turnover-worthy prone, make some mistakes, not massively so, but as many mistakes as you would expect an average quarterback to make,” Monson said. “He’s not offsetting those with massive big time plays that can fix a lot of that stuff. He’s essentially offsetting them by being in an offense run by Ben Johnson.”