The Detroit Lions still have nearly half of their season remaining on their 2021 schedule but Jared Goff‘s play through the first nine games has shown it’s not a given that he will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2022.
Now, Goff is under contract with the Lions through the 2022 season but that does not necessarily mean GM Brad Holmes will not decide to either bring in a veteran or draft a rookie QB to compete for the starting gig.
With the 2022 NFL Draft QB class not exactly looking too enticing, the Lions could decide to sign a veteran to bridge the gap until 2023 or 2024.
That being said, here are three quarterbacks who are currently scheduled to be free agents following this season and the Lions could bring one of them in for the 2022 campaign.
Teddy Bridgewater
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Jameis Winston
Other quarterbacks set to become free agents at the conclusion of the 2021 season:
Marcus Mariota
Mitchell Trubisky
Cam Newton
Nation, would you be interested in any of these quarterbacks or would you rather the Lions just roll with Goff for one more season?
The only QB in that list I’d be interested in is Mariota. The narrative on him ignores a lot of context. He was having a historically good early career until his leg was broken and then he was rushed back before he was rehabbed and mobile. The next year he got a nerve injury which made him not be able to feel his throwing hand and a little known fact is he was playing with a broken spine in 2018. They changed his head coach 3 times and OC 5 times in 5 years. The receivers who left as free agents were on practice squads or out of the league within a year. He was set up to fail and in 2019 he had lost confidence in himself. When he got benched he was missing his only reliable receiver, and his left tackle for the first 5 games. He was leading the league in being pressured, but had the highest qb rating under pressured. Henry was about to be traded for a 3rd round pick because he wasn’t playing very good. His mentor told Henry his career was going to be over unless he made adjustments. He broke out like a beast after Mariota was benched and made it look like Mariota was holding back the team. Now in Oakland he has his confidence back. You can see it in the last game he played last year. He never had a team play to his strengths, and he is still only 28. Mariota is leaps and bounds better than people give him credit for. It’s trendy to hate on him, but I have faith in him in the right system to be a great QB.
Anybody but Goff he’s just not the right QB for this team