"Jared Goff is nothing without Ben Johnson": Lions QB torched by fans after struggling mightily in 27-13 loss to Packers

Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions had an awful start to the season. The Lions were easily defeated by the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, and the quarterback failed to exploit the Packers' defense. Despite a beautiful touchdown throw in garbage time, it was not a great game for Detroit.

Many of the stars who often shine in Detroit's offense struggled throughout the game. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 44 rushing yards; Gibbs also had just 31 yards in 10 receptions, while Amon-Ra St. Brown finished the day with 45 yards in four catches.

After the game was over, fans took to Twitter to criticize the quarterback for his performance. Most of them mentioned how he struggled in his first game without Ben Johnson calling the plays and designing the offense:

"Jared “check down merchant” Goff is nothing without Ben Johnson", said one fan.

"Jared Goff was a Ben Johnson merchant", wrote another.

"Jared Goff is a Ben Johnson and Dome merchant" said a third critic.

Sanjit T.

@Sanjit__T

Jared Goff has had 5 different play callers in his career, under the 3 not named Sean Mcvay & Ben Johnson, he is 0-19-1.

SleeperBears

@SleeperBears

Jared Goff without Ben Johnson is just Dan Orlovsky

.

@tosinmm

Ben Johnson was so good at his job that people believed in Jared Goff

Johnson was Detroit's offensive coordinator for the past three seasons. He left the team to become the head coach for the Chicago Bears, who play in the same division as the Lions.

Ben Johnson will coach his first NFL game as a head coach on Monday, as the Bears will play against the Minnesota Vikings in another NFC North matchup.

Jared Goff's cap hit will more than double in the 2026 season

The quarterback is likely to restructure his contract in the next offseason, but his current number is huge. He has a cap hit of $32.6 million for the 2025 season, but this number will jump to $69.6 million in 2026, representing 22.6% of the projected salary cap.

His base salary of $18 million will move to $55 million in 2026 as well. This is the number that's going to be restructured, with those millions being spread out as a restructuring bonus.

This allows the Lions to lower their cap hit in 2026, giving extra space to sign new players who can help the franchise push for another playoff run.