Coming into the offseason, the Detroit Lions were expected to do one pretty big thing and that’s come to terms on an extension with quarterback Jared Goff. After comments from Goff’s agent Ryan Tollner, it seemed like this would be the first thing the Lions would take care of. Here we sit at the end of March and it’s not happened yet? What’s going on?
The first thing that people might think is that the two parties aren’t coming to an agreement on terms. Maybe they’re far apart on them. Maybe the Lions aren’t as serious about Goff as we thought they were. Maybe they’ll just wait until next year. I don’t think any of that is what’s happening right now. The reason is that history tells us that both the Lions and Goff’s agent tend to get these things done later instead of sooner.
On the Lions side, they have done extensions during the free agency period before. Alex Anzalone got one in 2022 and so did Tracy Walker. Those were some low level extensions though. Anzalone got a one year extension worth $2.5 million and Walker got a three year extension worth $25 million.
But when the Lions needed to get a major extension done with Frank Ragnow, they didn’t get it done until May 6th. That was a $54 million extension that made Ragnow the highest paid center in NFL history at the time. That shows the Lions have a history of taking their time with big stuff like this.
On the Tollner side, we see a history of his of players getting late extensions. Take his other big quarterback Carson Wentz for example. Yes, Wentz isn’t looked at as a big player anymore, but in 2019, when the Eagles signed him to a $128 million extension, he was. That deal got done in June. Long after free agency and the draft.
The only other quarterback that Tollner has worked with that got an extension was Blake Bortles and he was able to get that done in February. It was for just $54 million over three years though so it wasn’t anything major. The only other player he was able to get an extension for was Darren Sproles with the Eagles. That was done in July.
So there you go. Some things to think about when it comes to the Goff extension. It should be happening this offseason, it just might wait until the Lions are done with free agency and the draft. Maybe in May or June. It wouldn’t be out of the question for it to be in July or August. Matthew Stafford and the Lions agreed to their huge extension in late August just before the 2017 season started. These things can take time.