Breaking: Why Jared Goff Could Be The Next Tom Brady

What a stretch that Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff is on right now. Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, in the last four games Goff has gone 76-91 for 1,086 yards nine touchdowns and one interception. He’s completing 83.5% of his passes and has a passer rating of 144.8. That’s really good.

After the Lions win over the Vikings on Sunday, Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw compared Goff to the best quarterback of all time, Tom Brady.

The first thing that came to my mind, actually, when they got the ball back to go down and kick the game-winning field goal was that, ‘God, this guy reminds me a little bit of our guy Tom Brady.

Someone here said, ‘Lions are going to go down, Goff’s going to take them right down. They’re going to score.’ And I remember standing on the sidelines down in Houston when Tom led them down and Howie was a mess, and I said, ‘Never worry! This ball’s in the hands of the best hands it could possibly be in with Tom Brady.’ When you can trust a quarterback who has consistently brought your team from behind—in the fourth quarter especially—that’s rarified air right there.”

Look, I know people will say I’m crazy and I welcome it. I frankly don’t care, I’m going to go with what I feel. Jared Goff might be this generations Tom Brady. There, I said it. I know that’s kind of incorrect in the way it’s said because Brady literally played in the NFL two years ago, but I still think it’s apt.

I know football fans are going to say stuff like ‘he’s never won a Super Bowl,’ but that’s a team honor and I think if you asked Brady about that, he’d agree with you. You could also say  Goff has never won an MVP and you’re absolutely right. But it did take Brady seven years before he won his first and Goff has to be in the lead for it right now in his 9th season.

There’s this image that people have of Brady that he’s some sort of gunslinger that bombed it down the field and never had bad days. That’s just not true. Brady was a dead eyed quarterback that just made the right plays. He was never flashy, he just got the job done. Sometimes that was just making the right throw on a short pass and letting your receiver get some yards after the catch.

Jared Goff is the NFL’s king of not being flashy, but he manages to make plays. He just gets you down field. Bradshaw is right. When it comes down to it, you just trust Jared Goff to do what needs to be done just like you trusted Tom Brady to just make things happen. They’re so much alike in that regard.

The other thing is that these guys just don’t seem to let the outside pressure get to them. You never see them worrying about anything and you don’t really see them making it about them.

Last January Jared Goff was playing the most important game of his career, outside of the Super Bowl, when the Lions took on the Rams in the Wildcard round. Everyone knew this game was about Goff playing his former team and this was his chance for revenge and all that and he continuously insisted that it wasn’t about him and just never let that pressure get to him. Then he balled out.

Too many times comparisons are made with entire bodies of work involved. Tom Brady is best ever when you look at his entire career. There is no doubt about it. I don’t think Goff is the best ever. Not even close, he has so much more to prove in the next 10 years or however long he wants to play. But when you’re looking at 30-year-old Tom Brady, nobody thought he was the best quarterback ever at that time. What they saw was a guy playing the best year of his career to that point and going on to win his first MVP.

You can’t tell me Goff isn’t playing the best football of his career right now. If he keeps playing this way all year, he’ll also be winning his first MVP at 30. He’s going to do it playing a very similar style of football that Brady made his name on. Just getting it done.