If this year has taught Tim Boyle anything, it’s that he can play quarterback in the NFL.
“One hundred percent, yes,” Boyle said Wednesday. “I can play in this league. I believe that.”
Boyle has had mixed results as the Detroit Lions‘ fill-in starter for Jared Goff this season.
He is 0-3 with more interceptions (six) than touchdowns (three), but has thrown for 526 yards while completing 65% of his passes and has run the offense well enough to earn praise from Lions coaches.
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“The more this young man plays the better he’s going to get,” Lions offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn said. “We’re fortunate to have him right now as our backup because if something happens to Jared, we know this guy can step in and he can play. And yeah, he made some mistakes, but this is the type of player that learns from his mistakes and he gets better.”
Goff’s status for Sunday’s season finale against the Green Bay Packers remains in question because of a bone bruise in his left knee, though Lynn said Goff “moved around just fine” in practice Wednesday.
If Boyle starts, he will square off against the team that gave him his NFL start as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and will head into the most important offseason of his young career with somewhere around 250 starting snaps for teams to evaluate.
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An unrestricted free agent in March, Boyle said he hopes to re-sign this offseason with a Lions team that remains in flux at the quarterback position.
Goff has three years left on the contract he originally signed with the Los Angeles Rams, and has played well enough late in the season that he could return as Lions starter in 2022. Goff’s contract is structured in such a way that he almost certainly will be a Lion next fall.
Third-string quarterback David Blough will be a restricted free agent in March, though he is a candidate to be non-tendered. And the Lions have three of the NFL draft’s first 34 picks and remain in need of a quarterback of the future.
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“I’d love to come back to Detroit,” Boyle said. “I’ve built a lot of special relationships here. I love the area. The fans have been awesome to me. And, yeah, I don’t get paid to make those decisions, but hopefully I put myself in enough of a position to have them consider me back because I’d love to come back.”
Boyle said his time in Green Bay, where he apprenticed under three-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, helped prepare him for what he’s experienced this season.
He made his first career start Nov. 21 against the Cleveland Browns, when Goff was out with a strained oblique, and started losses to the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks the past two weeks, throwing for progressively more yards each time.
“I came in a quarterback, call it X, and I left Quarterback Y,” Boyle said. “I kind of took a backseat my first year and kind of observed and watched how (Rodgers) operated. And then I took the role of being the backup and that’s when you kind of get more involved. But yeah, he’s instrumental to my whole entire progression as a quarterback and the coaches there. I’m grateful for our friendship off the field, which I think is far more important than the one we had on the field. And he’ll be a special person in my life forever. I’m very grateful for him taking me under his wing and being as nice as he was. It was a special three years for me, but I’m right where I want to be right now.”
Boyle said his experience in Green Bay is a big part of why he wants to stay in Detroit.
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The Packers (13-3) are in the midst of their third straight season with at last 13 wins and have won 11 of the past 13 NFC North titles. Boyle said he believes the Lions are on a similar path.
“I firmly believe in what we’re trying to do here and I know Coach (Dan) Campbell says it every day and he says it to us, we’re building a foundation right now and we kind of have to take our lumps,” Boyle said. “Not that we have to take them, but we have taken them already and I think this team, because of the leadership with our GM and our owner and our head coach, I mean, they understand where we’re going and I think it’s up to the players to understand, like Jared, myself, players who have been on other teams who have seen it done the right way and have been to big-time games.
“Not that I helped the Packers get there, but I’ve seen it. I’ve kind of been on that side of the fence where I feel how it’s supposed to look. And it makes me as a competitor definitely want to stick around because I know exactly where this team is going and I think the players who understand where it’s going are licking their chops for an opportunity next year because Coach Campbell will have us dialed in. He’ll have us ready to go and it’ll be a special run.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.