Following another successful season in Detroit, there was optimism that the Lions and Jared Goff would agree to an extension this offseason. While it’s been relatively quiet on that front over the past few months, it sounds like the two sides have privately started negotiations. The quarterback told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that he’s discussed a new deal with the organization.

[RELATED: Lions, QB Jared Goff Expected To Finalize Extension In Offseason]

“You never want to like say something,” Goff said today. “There’s discussions and Brad (Holmes) has said what he’s said to you guys and I’ll say the same thing. There’s been discussions. Yeah, my agent’s on top of it, he’s doing a good job and I trust those guys.”

After being replaced in Los Angeles and winning only three games during his first season in Detroit, Goff revived his career in 2022, tossing 29 touchdowns while guiding the Lions to a winning season. The team took another step forward in 2023, with Goff helping lead the squad to a 12-win regular season and an NFC Championship Game appearance.

As a result of Goff’s standout performance, the quarterback is expected to earn a lucrative extension. Back in January, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports estimated that Goff would earn an average annual value that was at $40MM-plus. While the quarterback could push for a deal that pays more than $50MM per year via the open market, it sounds like he could give the Lions a slight discount in order to stick around Detroit.

“It’s been amazing, man,” Goff said. “I love it here and would love to be here for a long time. It’s been really special like I mentioned playing in front of these fans and being able to provide a winning culture in the last year and a half or so. To see them experience that and be able to be a part of that has been fun but by no means are we satisfied or happy to be here or any of that. It’s about what’s next now.”

Goff has one year remaining on his contract and is set to earn more than $27MM in 2024. He’s still playing out the four-year, $134MM extension he signed with the Rams back in 2019.

Lions QB Jared Goff is under contract through 2024, but the team remains interested in a long-term arrangement. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link), the Lions and Goff are expected to come together this offseason to discuss an extension that will make Goff one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.

Goff was selected by the Rams with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 draft, and he struggled in his rookie season under then-HC Jeff Fisher. Of course, Sean McVay‘s hiring in 2017 proved to be one of the best decisions in team history, and for a time, McVay and Goff enjoyed a productive partnership.

Over the 2017-18 campaigns, Goff posted a 24-7 record while throwing for 60 touchdowns against just 19 interceptions. He earned Pro Bowl acclaim in both of those years and guided the the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance at the end of the 2018 season, which prompted Los Angeles to hand him a four-year, $134MM extension a few months later.

Unfortunately, Goff regressed over the next two seasons, and after the Rams were bounced from the playoffs at the conclusion of the 2020 season, McVay was notably non-committal on Goff’s future with the club. Shortly thereafter, the Rams traded Goff to the Lions in a blockbuster deal that brought Matthew Stafford to LA and sent significant draft capital to the rebuilding Detroit outfit.

At the time of the trade, Goff’s contract looked like something of an albatross, and many believed that Lions GM Brad Holmes agreed to assume the deal merely to squeeze an extra first-round draft choice out of the Rams. But subsequent reports made it clear that Holmes — who had just joined Detroit after spending the previous eight years in the Rams’ front office — truly believed that Goff could recapture his Pro Bowl form and was not viewed as a mere bridge option.

It appears that Holmes’ assessment was correct, as Goff posted solid numbers on an otherwise poor Lions club in 2021 and has taken his game to a higher level as the talent around him has improved. Over the past two seasons, Goff has guided the team to top-five finishes in both points per game and total offense, and two weeks ago, Detroit won its first playoff game since 1991. Of course, the Lions also won last week’s divisonal round tilt with the Bucs and are one victory away from the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

In 2023, we heard rumblings that the Lions were targeting a Goff extension, though that was before the team experienced playoff success with him under center. Now, it appears there will be more urgency to that dialogue.

Sources tell Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that there is a little doubt a deal will get done in the coming months, though Jones believes the average annual value on Goff’s next contract will be “somwhere in the 40s.” There are now 12 quarterbacks with AAVs of at least $40MM, so while Jones indicates that Goff is not overly concerned with his ranking in the QB contract hierarchy, Rapoport’s report — to say nothing of Goff’s leverage and his importance to a formerly moribund franchise — suggest that the number could check in closer to $50MM.

The Rams making Jared Goff the NFL’s second-highest-paid player in September 2019 ended up benefiting the Lions, who capitalized on the former No. 1 overall pick’s depressed value barely 16 months later. Agreeing to take on Goff’s $33.5MM-per-year contract led to the Lions picking up an extra first-round pick in the January 2021 Matthew Stafford trade.

Detroit has kept Goff on that 2019 extension; the former Super Bowl starter is the only QB still attached to a deal agreed to during the 2010s. Extension rumors have circulated this year. Goff’s camp was believed to be targeting a new deal, and the Lions were reported to be engaging in dialogue on an updated contract. While this would be an interesting deal to complete, one GM told the Washington Post’s Jason La Canfora the Lions want to extend Goff, whose contract has fallen to 16th at the position.

Completing a Goff extension might be trickier for the Lions than it was for the Rams. In 2019, the Super Bowl LIII starter was viewed as an ascending talent going into his age-25 season. He had come off two straight quality seasons under Sean McVay, and while the Cal product was not viewed as necessarily a top-tier starter, he was seen as a rising player coming into his prime. Goff did not live up to that deal in Los Angeles and saw a midcareer regression lead him to Detroit, where he struggled in 2021. Early in his age-29 season, however, Goff is in a much better place — as the unquestioned starter for a team that has constructed an atypical rebuild around him.

Not taking the route most rebuilding teams have, the Lions have never enjoyed a modern rookie-QB contract. Stafford’s was signed during the 2006 CBA’s duration; that agreement doubled as the last before the slot system changed NFL roster building. Stafford signed a six-year, $72MM deal upon being chosen No. 1 overall in 2009. By comparison, Bryce Young is only attached to a four-year, $37.9MM accord.

The Lions still managed to build up their roster around Goff, thanks to the picks the Rams provided and the QB market igniting during the early 2020s. They have assembled a quality offensive line and found a promising play-caller in Ben Johnson, who moved off the HC carousel this offseason. Goff on a new contract would change the equation, though an extension would lower his cap number from $31.9MM 2024 place.

Although Goff has performed well on the heels of his bounce-back 2022 — a season that featured the eighth-year passer rank fifth in QBR (a career-high placement) — the Lions may still want to see more from him. Of course, the better Goff plays this year, the more he will be able to command on his next deal. Through three games, Detroit’s starter ranks fourth in QBR. Goff’s contract runs through the 2024 season, and the salary cap is expected to make another big jump next year. With the $50MM-per-year club being firmly established this offseason, the Lions may have a difficult negotiation coming.

Multiple execs told La Canfora they would shy away from authorizing a big-ticket Goff extension in line with the position’s current upper echelon, while another pegged Detroit’s QB as being worth at least a $45MM-per-year contract. While that would represent a sizable raise for Goff, the resurgent quarterback’s camp could also argue the cap growth and booming QB market would justify a payday north of $50MM AAV.

Goff, Stafford and a 2000 Charlie Batch one-off are the only Lions QBs to complete a winning season over the past 25 years. A Detroit NFC North title, or even a wild-card berth two years after a 3-13-1 season, would only boost Goff’s value, and he will likely have this season to convince Lions brass he is worth a megadeal. It is unknown if the sides will get serious about a negotiation during the season, but of the 15 QB contracts that have since topped Goff’s, none of them were signed in-season.

Much is expected of the Lions’ offense in 2023, in no small part due to the play of quarterback Jared Goff to close out the 2022 campaign. The former No. 1 pick is on the extension radar as a result, something head coach Dan Campbell would approve of.

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Goff is on the books through 2024, but he is only due guaranteed money for the coming season. It thus comes as no surprise that a new deal has come up, and the Lions have discussed an extension for much of the offseason. Goff’s presence has also been named as a reason why offensive coordinator Ben Johnson chose to withdraw from head coaching searches during the 2023 cycle.

When asked about his confidence in Goff’s ability to remain the team’s starter for years to come, Campbell said, “There’s nothing that tells me he can’t be. When you have a quarterback you believe in, why would you ever move on? I get there are other circumstances, but it’s hard to find quarterbacks in this league. We’ve got a guy we can win with right now. We’re fortunate to have him; that’s how I see it” (h/t ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler).

Detroit seemed to put a Goff succession plan in place by drafting Hendon Hooker in April. The Tennessee alum is currently on the NFI list while rehabbing the ACL tear which ended his college career, but a path exists for him to compete for the starting role in 2024. That would especially hold true if Goff were to move through the coming season without any clarity regarding his long-term future.

After the trade which ended his Rams tenure, the 28-year-old posted underwhelming numbers in 2021. Goff was at the heart of the Lions’ late-season playoff push last year, though, and he finished with 4,438 yards, 29 touchdowns and a third career Pro Bowl nod. Questions will remain about his ability to earn a multi-year extension in Detroit, especially with Hooker in place. If Campbell has his way, though, Goff could remain in the Motor City for the foreseeable future.

With Jalen Hurts on the brink of officially inking a record-breaking contract, the focus has turned to other extension-eligible quarterbacks. One signal caller who has flown under the radar in that discussion is Lions QB Jared Goff. Speaking to reporters today, the veteran acknowledged that he hasn’t had extension talks with Detroit’s front office.

“I mean, of course you’d be open,” Goff said of signing an extension (via Justin Rogers of The Detroit News). “It hasn’t been brought to my attention, but yeah, of course open to anything. Not up to me. I’m a player, I don’t have to make those decisions. And if I did, I would have made that decision a long time ago: Give me and all my friends all the money in the world. But I just get to play, and if that comes about, that’d be great. But we’ll see.”

As Rogers notes, there’s no rush to sign Goff to an extension; the quarterback still has two years remaining on the four-year, $134MM deal he signed with the Rams back in 2019. However, the writer also notes that there are plenty of reasons why the two sides should explore a new deal.

For starters, QB contracts continue to jump, and Goff’s asking price will likely increase as each quarterback signs an extension. Goff already finds himself 12th at the position in average annual value, and he’ll continue to fall down that list as younger QBs continue to reset the market. Fortunately for the Lions, Goff understands the business and acknowledged that his ranking at the position was always going to fall.

“That’s how the league goes,” Goff told Rogers. “Guy gets paid, and then 10 more guys get paid, you’re toward the bottom. Hopefully (you sign again), and things go like this. Yeah, hopefully I can play for a long time, play in this league, win games, win championships, and the money and the contract all comes with that. But just enjoying your time in the present, enjoying the people around you and your teammates, is the most important thing. All that will come.”

After being ousted in Los Angeles and winning only three games during his Lions debut, Goff rebounded in 2022. He finished the season with 29 touchdowns (his highest total since 2018) and a career-low seven interceptions while guiding the Lions to an inspiring 9-8 record. Goff earned his third career Pro Bowl nod at the end of the season.

Viewed by most as a placeholder passer during his first two offseasons in Detroit, Jared Goff is coming off a strong 2022 slate and will enter the 2023 season in position to build on it.

The Lions will have Jameson Williams healthy to complement Amon-Ra St. Brown, and the team is interested in re-signing DJ Chark. Detroit also stands to return most of its offensive line. And OC Ben Johnson, who went from rookie play-caller to sought-after HC candidate, decided early in this year’s interview cycle to stay with the Lions. Goff has also received a run of endorsements about his status as the Lions’ starter.

The former No. 1 overall pick remains tied to his Rams-constructed contract — a four-year, $134MM extension agreed to during the 2019 offseason — but might this momentum entice Goff’s camp to pursue a new deal? They may already have done so. Rumblings pointed to Goff’s camp seeking a Lions extension during the 2022 offseason, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, who expects the QB’s reps to broach the subject with the team again this year. Goff’s current deal runs through the 2024 season.

Coming back from being the throw-in piece in 2021’s Matthew Stafford trade, Goff moved to Detroit because the Rams added a second first-round pick to convince the Lions to take on the then-trending-down passer’s contract. But the Lions did not pursue an upgrade in 2022, a rather busy offseason for the quarterback market. GM Brad Holmes offered another endorsement of Goff as the team’s starter last month. That came after a December report indicated the Lions were looking at Goff not as a bridge but as a long-term option. Following a season in which Goff ranked fifth in QBR — at 61.2, the second-highest mark of his career — the Cal product is back on the upswing.

Detroit held the No. 2 overall pick last year — a draft that brought a shaky quarterback class — and, thanks to the Rams’ 2022 struggles, holds this year’s No. 6 choice. Detroit also has its own first-rounder (No. 18 overall) to dangle for a potential trade-up, in the event the team takes a liking to one of this year’s top prospects. The Lions may not want to do a Goff deal before the draft, but Birkett adds the more logical window would be in the summer. Both the Lions’ Stafford extensions were finalized in the summer (July 2013, August 2017).

When Goff signed his Rams accord, it ranked as a top-five contract. Nearly four years later, the QB market’s usual movement has dropped Goff’s AAV outside the top 10. Goff’s $33.5MM-per-year number now checks in at No. 11 at the position, and the $30MM-AAV neighborhood is sliding toward the QB middle class. Nine passers are currently tied to deals north of $40MM per annum, with no contracts residing in the $35-40MM gap. Goff’s deal also contains no more guaranteed money. Of course, the obvious question would be whether the Lions would want to give their current starter a big raise.

Goff doing an extension would reduce his 2023 cap number (currently at $30.9MM), but the Lions considering an upper-crust extension for a quarterback who has been inconsistent over the past four seasons would cut into their ability to build a team around the eighth-year veteran. Goff, 28, has not solidified himself as a surefire franchise quarterback; paying him as such would inject risk into the Lions’ equation. But the market could soon change. A number of QBs could join Aaron Rodgers as $50MM-per-year passers, with Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert all extension-eligible. Daniel Jones‘ next deal may be more pertinent to Goff, given the aforementioned passers’ higher standing in the league.

This batch of extensions coming to pass and Goff playing well again in 2023 — ahead of his 2024 contract year — would boost his value. Another Goff contract does not appear to be a front-burner matter for the Lions, who rallied from 1-6 to the playoff precipice. But it might enter that territory in the not-too-distant future.