Allen Park — For a minute there, Jared Goff was the only quarterback on the Detroit Lions’ roster.
That’s no longer the case after the team announced Friday they’ve re-signed Nate Sudfeld, who backed up Goff last season.
After a training camp competition between David Blough and Tim Boyle failed to net a solution last offseason, the Lions signed Sudfeld shortly before Week 1 of the regular season. Unlike the previous year, when Goff missed multiple games due to injury, Sudfeld wasn’t needed, outside of nine snaps in the closing minutes of games where the result was already in hand.
Prior to Detroit, Sudfeld spent time with three teams, most notably, a three-year stretch with the Philadelphia Eagles. There, he appeared in four games, completing 25 of 37 passes for 188 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He has not started a game in six NFL seasons.
At the scouting combine earlier this month, Lions GM Brad Holmes shouldered the blame for Detroit’s makeshift backup QB situation in 2022 and vowed to be better prepared going into the next season.
“I feel like last year, we kind of left training camp kind of sliding into home plate trying to fill that backup quarterback role,” Holmes said. “And that’s on me. I gotta do a better job of making sure that we’re not in that position again. So, that is something that we’re gonna need to address, whether it’s here in free agency or upcoming in the draft. But, that’s something that we’ve had a lot of conversations about. I gotta do a better job of making sure we get that rectified.”
Presumably, the Lions could still be in the market for a quarterback in the upcoming draft, whether as an immediate challenger to Sudfeld, or an option who could be developed to take over the backup role behind Goff in the future.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers