Allen Park — There’s an argument to be made that nobody suffered more from the Detroit Lions’ major shakeups at offensive coordinator and along the offensive line in 2025 than quarterback Jared Goff.
Goff withstood a career-high in sacks (38) and a woefully inconsistent ground game to still produce his fourth consecutive season with at least 4,400 passing yards and finish with the second-best passer rating (105.5) and completion percentage (68%) and second-most touchdowns (34) of his career. He also threw just eight interceptions, tied for his second-fewest since arriving in Detroit in 2021.
For Goff personally, it was a pretty good season. He made the Pro Bowl for the third time since joining the Lions in 2021.
But for the rest of the Lions’ offense, it was not. Hence, Detroit made its offensive line the focal point of its offseason acquisition period and rebuilt its offensive coaching staff, bringing in Drew Petzing to replace John Morton, who was demoted midseason and later fired.
Even after just three spring practices, Goff is liking what he sees from his new boss.
“He’s been awesome, man. He really has,” Goff, who’s entering his 11th NFL season, said of Petzing after an OTAs practice in Allen Park. “He’s been great to work with. He’s got a lot of his own ideas, and he’s also very open to listening to everything we want to do. It’s been a fun synergy between him and I and our whole offense, our whole offensive staff, everything.”
Petzing joined Detroit following three seasons as the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator.
All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said his first few practices under Petzing have been “amazing.” St. Brown was another player whose production proved coordinator-proof. He had the second-most catches (117), receiving yards (1,401) and touchdowns (11) of his career in 2025. St. Brown missed OTAs last year while recovering from knee surgery.
“Meetings have been great. Out here at practice has been amazing. It’s still early, it’s only been three practices, but just being able to sit in the meeting rooms, being out there, talking with him, I think it’s gonna be great for us,” St. Brown said.
Despite some up-and-down production from a Cardinals offense that lacked talent and health over his three seasons in the desert, Petzing’s prior experience is a huge plus for Goff, who was dealing with a first-time coordinator and play-caller in 2025.
“He’s been a coordinator previously, I believe, three years, right? So he’s got a great feel for what it’s like to run an offense and to run a room and how to balance volume with intentionally attacking a defense, and trying to find yourself in the right plays,” Goff said.
“It’s hard, man. There’s a lot to it than just drawing up plays, and I think he’s got that extra part to it — as well as the play stuff’s great, the scheme’s great — but the part that’s outside of the X’s and O’s, I think he does a hell of a job with that.”
Asked to elaborate on that “extra part,” one of the many things Goff noted was communication, something that was clearly off under Morton. Everybody — from the head coach to the offensive coordinator to the offensive players — had a different perspective on why things weren’t clicking like they were under former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, with Morton frequently saying it was a lack of execution that was holding the Lions’ offense back.
Early on, it seems like one of Petzing’s main goals is to get everybody on the same page — a promising effort as the calendar flips to June.
“It’s communication, it’s knowing when to balance simple, easy concepts with complexities that we can all handle, and then knowing how to install, how to keep it fun and keep the energy up, and then how to hold guys accountable and lead and be able to be in front of the room,” Goff said.
“And he’s been great at it.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
@nolanbianchi
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Jared Goff: ‘Extra part’ makes new Lions OC Drew Petzing special
Reporting by Nolan Bianchi, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
