Michael Vick Weighs in on Jared Goff’s Ability to Thrive Despite Lions’ Offensive Coordinator Change
With a new offensive coordinator set to take over for the Detroit Lions next season, former Pro Bowl quarterback Michael Vick doesn’t foresee the change having a major impact on Jared Goff’s performance.
“He’s a football savant,” Vick told the Free Press at Super Bowl 59 last week. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Vick, now an analyst with Fox Sports and the newly appointed head coach at Norfolk State, enjoyed a successful 13-season NFL career, playing for four different teams. His standout year came in 2004 with the Atlanta Falcons, after a coaching and offensive coordinator change.
In 2004, Vick made his second Pro Bowl appearance, finished as the MVP runner-up to Peyton Manning, ran for a career-high 902 yards, and led the Falcons to an 11-5 record and an NFC South title. This came after a tough 2003 season, where Vick missed most of the year due to a fractured leg and Atlanta fired head coach Dan Reeves after a rough 3-10 start. Jim Mora stepped in as the new head coach in 2004, and the Falcons revamped their offensive strategy with Greg Knapp calling plays.
While the Lions’ situation won’t be as drastic, they will be adapting to the departure of Ben Johnson, their play caller for the past three seasons. Johnson recently left to take the head coaching job with the Chicago Bears, leaving the Lions with a new offensive coordinator, John Morton. Morton, who previously served as a Lions assistant in 2022, spent the past two years as the Denver Broncos‘ passing coordinator.
Despite the change, Vick doesn’t expect Goff to miss a beat. The Lions had the league’s highest-scoring offense the past three seasons under Johnson, and Goff played some of the best football of his career. This season, Goff set career highs with a 72.4% completion percentage, 37 touchdown passes, and finished second in the league with 4,629 passing yards.
Fox Sports analyst Jimmy Johnson, a two-time Super Bowl-winning coach with the Dallas Cowboys, emphasized that it will be Morton’s responsibility to tailor his offensive scheme to suit Goff’s strengths. Morton was already familiar with the Lions’ system, having worked with Johnson as a senior offensive assistant in 2022.
“Anytime you change coaches, there’s going to be some changes and some things to overcome,” Johnson said. “But I think Goff has been in this league long enough that he’s going to know what he does well and what he doesn’t do well, and so I’m sure that the new coordinator will adjust to that.”
At 30 years old, Goff earned MVP votes for the first time in his career this season. Vick praised Goff for his ability to adapt to different coaching styles and systems, asserting that Goff‘s success is not solely a result of Johnson‘s offense.
“I think Jared Goff will overcome,” Vick said. “Being with Sean McVay, he showed that he can take it to the next level and he did. He played in the Super Bowl and then it’s just a complete change of scenery, abrupt change in his career. He goes to Detroit, takes them to, I think, the NFC Championship game last year, and just a ton of success. So he’s shown that he’s versatile. He can work with multiple coordinators, and he’s probably a big part of that as well—just making suggestions and being a mental stipend for the team as well from a quarterback perspective.”
