Ah, yes, welcome to another season of Detroit Lions football where this franchise has perfected the art of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Well, truth told, it was only the first preseason game, and these games are supposedly meaningless, right? Lions head coach Dan Campbell has to make choices on who’s the Lions QB2 and from what we’ve seen so far in the preseason, that bar is pretty low.
Jared Goff remains the starting QB in Detroit-no question.
Jared Goff did go to Dan Campbell and demand playing time in the first preseason game last Friday against the Atlanta Falcons. Goff started out a ten-play drive and went three for 4 on passes for 47 yards for a TD drive. As promised, Campbell gave Goff some playing time, but Friday night’s game became an evaluation on who’s the viable backup QB to Jared Goff right now.
Who’s the contender for the backup QB position?
Right now, this question is the million-dollar question surrounding the Lions training camp. Tim Boyle and David Blough have both been around the Lions organization with Blough being Jared Goff’s backup early in 2021 and Boyle won that job back later in the season and actually had three starts at the end of the dismal 2021 campaign.
Neither QB really shined on Friday night but perfunctorily performed their jobs. Tim Boyle earned a bit of an audition last year, so Dan Campbell’s view of his ability comes with some background knowledge while David Blough effectively took up roster space.
Friday night’s performance
Neither Blough nor Boyle performed miracles on Friday night and suddenly locked up the Lions backup QB job overnight. However, Boyle threw an INT late in the third quarter helped the Falcons kick a field goal. Even worse, Blough fumbled a snap with less than two minutes left in the game and the Falcons recovered the fumble and guess what – they drove down and scored the winning TD.
The Detroit Lions made no effort to seek out another QB to create competition in their film room this training camp. In fact, Dan Campbell summed up his assessment of the backups from Friday night: “I’m not displeased with those guys, at all.” This underwhelming statement sets the tone for the rest of the Lions training camp and don’t expect the
Lions to do anything to veer away from Jared Goff. If he goes down for any reason, the Lions may be in deep, deep trouble this season.