Player
Jared Goff
QB · DET Lions
Volume leaderboards are usually availability leaderboards, and that is exactly the point here. A quarterback drafted in the ninth round of fantasy drafts is being priced as a bye-week problem waiting to happen; the last four years say the opposite. For a manager building a roster, the value of a passer who has never cost his team a start is difficult to see in a weekly average and easy to see in a four-year total.
More yards than anyone, four years running
Nobody in football has thrown for more yards over the last four seasons. He has also not missed a game in any of them.
MilestoneMost passing yards, 2022 through 2025 regular seasons
| Quarterback | Games | Yards | TDs | INTs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Goff | 68 | 18,206 | 130 | 39 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 63 | 16,948 | 116 | 48 |
| Josh Allen | 65 | 15,988 | 117 | 48 |
| Justin Herbert | 63 | 15,470 | 94 | 33 |
| Geno Smith | 64 | 15,251 | 90 | 52 |
| Matthew Stafford | 57 | 14,521 | 100 | 35 |
| Baker Mayfield | 63 | 14,400 | 105 | 45 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 60 | 14,181 | 86 | 41 |
Sixty-eight games is every regular-season game Detroit has played since the start of 2022. The gap to second is 1,258 yards, which is most of a season's worth of a good week, and every one of the seven men behind him missed at least three games in the span.
Why it matters. Volume leaderboards are usually availability leaderboards, and that is exactly the point here. A quarterback drafted in the ninth round of fantasy drafts is being priced as a bye-week problem waiting to happen; the last four years say the opposite. For a manager building a roster, the value of a passer who has never cost his team a start is difficult to see in a weekly average and easy to see in a four-year total.
4,564 yards and eight interceptions. That combination has happened 11 times since 1999, and two of them were in 2025.
RareSeasons of 4,500+ passing yards with 8 or fewer interceptions, since 1999
| Quarterback | Season | Attempts | Yards | TDs | INTs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Ryan | 2016 | 534 | 4,944 | 38 | 7 |
| Matt Ryan | 2018 | 608 | 4,924 | 35 | 7 |
| Tom Brady | 2012 | 637 | 4,827 | 34 | 8 |
| Deshaun Watson | 2020 | 544 | 4,823 | 33 | 7 |
| Tom Brady | 2007 | 578 | 4,806 | 50 | 8 |
| Tom Brady | 2015 | 624 | 4,770 | 36 | 7 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 2020 | 588 | 4,740 | 38 | 6 |
| Matthew Stafford | 2025 | 597 | 4,707 | 46 | 8 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 2011 | 501 | 4,636 | 45 | 6 |
| Tom Brady | 2017 | 581 | 4,577 | 32 | 8 |
| Jared Goff | 2025 | 578 | 4,564 | 34 | 8 |
Seven quarterbacks have ever done it. Goff is the newest name on a list that is otherwise Brady four times, Ryan twice, and one season each from Rodgers, Mahomes and Watson. His own career-best interception rate came in 2022 at 1.19 percent; 2025 came in at 1.38 percent.
Why it matters. Interceptions and volume pull against each other: the more a quarterback throws, the more chances a defense gets, which is why the low-pick seasons on this list mostly come from passers who threw under 550 times. Goff cleared 575 attempts and still finished under nine. In fantasy that matters less for the points it saves and more for what it signals about how many possessions his offense keeps.
Only two starters in football threw the ball shorter than he did in 2025. He still led the league in yards over four years.
AnomalyAverage air yards per throw, 2025 passers with 400+ charted throws
| Quarterback | Charted throws | Average depth | Season passing yards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Rodgers | 495 | 6.09 | 3,322 |
| Geno Smith | 446 | 6.20 | 3,025 |
| Jared Goff | 576 | 6.45 | 4,564 |
| Bryce Young | 476 | 6.51 | 3,011 |
| Dak Prescott | 597 | 8.06 | 4,552 |
| Matthew Stafford | 594 | 9.31 | 4,707 |
Goff's average throw depth by season
| Season | Charted throws | Average depth | Deep throws of 20+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 559 | 8.70 | 63 |
| 2020 | 550 | 6.51 | 49 |
| 2022 | 586 | 7.05 | 54 |
| 2023 | 601 | 6.76 | 50 |
| 2024 | 536 | 6.36 | 43 |
| 2025 | 576 | 6.45 | 39 |
His average pass in 2018 travelled 8.70 yards. His average pass in 2025 travelled 6.45. He threw 39 balls of 20 or more air yards all season, and finished with more passing yards than every quarterback in football except Stafford. The yards are coming from volume and completion rate, not from distance.
Why it matters. Throw depth is one of the most persistent things about a quarterback, and Goff's has been drifting shorter for six years without his production following. The mechanism is that Detroit converts short throws into long gains: his receivers are asked to catch it in stride and run. That makes his passing total unusually sensitive to who is running after the catch and unusually insensitive to whether the deep ball is working on a given Sunday.
Under center, on purpose
Under center he gains 8.96 yards a dropback. Out of the shotgun, 6.32. Three straight seasons, same gap.
SplitGoff by formation, 2023 to 2025 regular seasons (dropbacks, sacks included)
| Season | Formation | Dropbacks | Completion | Yards per dropback | TDs | INTs | EPA per dropback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Shotgun | 483 | 62.9% | 6.30 | 25 | 10 | +0.072 |
| 2023 | Under center | 151 | 67.5% | 8.85 | 8 | 2 | +0.244 |
| 2024 | Shotgun | 354 | 65.0% | 6.58 | 23 | 9 | +0.195 |
| 2024 | Under center | 214 | 74.8% | 9.65 | 14 | 3 | +0.412 |
| 2025 | Shotgun | 449 | 62.4% | 6.32 | 26 | 6 | +0.105 |
| 2025 | Under center | 164 | 68.3% | 8.96 | 8 | 2 | +0.374 |
Three seasons, same shape every time: roughly six points of completion percentage, two and a half yards per dropback, and a quarter of a point of expected points on every snap. Detroit used the formation on 164 dropbacks in 2025, down from 214 in 2024, and the gap did not close.
Why it matters. Under-center dropbacks come with play action attached and with a defense that has not yet been told the play is a pass. Goff is a rhythm thrower who does his best work when the read is defined before the snap, which is exactly what those looks provide. The practical read for 2026 is that his weekly ceiling tracks how often Detroit is ahead enough to keep using the formation, not how many times he drops back.
The first pick, ten years on
The 2021 trade swapped two number one overall picks. Five years on, the one Los Angeles gave up has more yards, more scores and fewer picks.
ComparisonSince the 2021 trade, regular season only
| Quarterback | Drafted | Games | Attempts | Yards | TDs | INTs | Completion | PPR points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Goff | 2016, 1st overall | 82 | 2,803 | 21,451 | 149 | 47 | 67.9% | 1,389.4 |
| Matthew Stafford | 2009, 1st overall | 74 | 2,539 | 19,407 | 141 | 52 | 65.5% | 1,246.2 |
Eight more games, 264 more attempts, 2,044 more yards, eight more touchdowns, five fewer interceptions, and a two-and-a-half point edge in completion percentage. Yards per attempt is the one place they are level: 7.65 for Goff, 7.64 for Stafford. The rest of the ledger has gone one way.
Why it matters. This comparison is usually settled by pointing at the trophy case rather than the box score, and the box score deserves its own hearing. Goff's edge is built on availability first, 82 games to 74, and on interceptions second. He has never been the better thrower on a per-attempt basis; the 0.01 gap in yards per attempt says the two are the same passer on a play-by-play level, and everything else is Goff being on the field more often and giving the ball away less.
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