Jared Goff's Record Start Still Isn't Earning Him MVP Respect

Goff has spent the first stretch of this season doing things nobody has done in NFL history, and the reaction still feels like a shrug. That's the part that bugs me. After a win over the Packers, he became the only quarterback in league history to throw at least 14 touchdown passes with zero interceptions through six games. Before that, he was the only one with 12 touchdowns and no picks through his first five. Those aren't cute trivia lines. They describe a quarterback who has simply refused to give the ball away.

The numbers behind the streak

Start with the raw production. Goff has 1,788 passing yards, which ranks seventh in the league, and 14 touchdowns, good for fifth. His zero interceptions lead the NFL. He's completing better than 67 percent of his throws, and his 8.0 yards per attempt is the third-best mark of his career. Put those together and you get a passer who is on pace for career highs in both touchdowns and yards.

The interception number deserves more attention than it usually gets. Quarterbacks who avoid turnovers for a month tend to be doing something right in their decision-making, protection and timing with receivers, not just getting lucky. Goff's ball security this year looks like a process, not a streak that's about to snap.

Where the ranking goes sideways

Pro Football Focus released its top 10 quarterbacks before Week 8, and Goff landed fifth. PFF posted the ranking on X, and the grading service put Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy, Josh Allen and Dak Prescott ahead of him. I understand that grades are built on film and that a grading system weighs plays differently than a box score does. Still, a quarterback with the league's fewest interceptions, a record-setting touchdown pace and a team that's sitting near the top of its division has a hard time looking like a fifth-place player.

My read is that a lot of the skepticism comes from the stage. Goff plays in Detroit, not New York or Los Angeles, and national voices tend to look at the biggest markets first when they build MVP conversations. Goff's start doesn't leave much room for that bias. If he were a fifth-place quarterback, he wouldn't be on pace for a career season with the best ball security in the league.

How Goff stacks up against the four ranked ahead of him

The fair way to test the ranking is to line Goff up against the four quarterbacks PFF put ahead of him, using the numbers from this season:

1. Joe Burrow (6 games): 1,653 yards, 15 TDs, 3 INTs, 71.7% completion rate
2. Brock Purdy (7 games): 1,748 yards, 15 TDs, 4 INTs, 69.2% completion rate
3. Josh Allen (6 games): 1,504 yards, 9 TDs, 4 INTs, 66.7% completion rate; 8 rushing TDs
4. Dak Prescott (7 games): 1,851 yards, 13 TDs, 5 INTs, 65.2% completion rate

Goff has the second-most yards in that group despite playing one fewer game than Purdy and Prescott. He has 14 touchdowns, which sits right in the top tier of the group, and he has no interceptions, the best figure among the five. His completion rate ranks third. Allen's dual-threat production is a different kind of value, and Allen has the rushing scores to show it, but as a pure passer Goff compares well.

That's why I'd argue Goff belongs ahead of Burrow and Prescott on this list. Burrow has the same touchdown total but three interceptions. Prescott has more yards but five picks. Allen and Purdy have been excellent, and you could make a credible case that they've been the best quarterbacks in the league not named Goff. But the gap between Goff and the bottom of PFF's top five looks much narrower than the ranking suggests.

What to watch next

The MVP conversation usually follows the team, and the Lions give Goff a reason to stay in it. A quarterback who keeps the turnover column clean while the offense keeps scoring tends to see his name rise as the season moves toward its final months. If Goff keeps protecting the football while his touchdown and yardage totals stay on pace, the rankings will have a harder time ignoring him.

Here's the thing: rankings lag behind results. Grading services and national pundits often adjust late, after a player's numbers become impossible to explain away. Goff is already giving them that material. The question isn't whether his start is historic. It's how long the people who build these lists keep treating it like a footnote.