A: I think you basically nailed it, especially at the top. As a longtime NFL talent evaluator once told me, there are two types of teams in this league -- those with a quarterback, and those looking for one. I know some people think Jared Goff is good enough to get by with, but I still think the Lions fall into the latter bucket. Goff is fine at his best. Give that man a clean pocket and a lot of weapons, and he can cook. But he hasn’t been anything more than that in a long time, and as anyone actually watching the Lions can attest, you don’t always have a clean pocket in this league, and you certainly don’t always have all your weapons on the field.
A good quarterback is essential to achieving consistency, because they can cover for so much else going awry. Wind up with a quarterback like Goff, who is dependent on so much else going right, and you’re more vulnerable to wild fluctuations. That’s one reason why the Lions were able to score more points than anyone else in the league in the first month of the season (when they were near-full strength) before getting shut out in four of their next six halves of football (when they lost DJ Chark, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Quintez Cephus and Josh Reynolds) while averaging just 12.0 points in those games.
You can do a lot worse than Jared Goff in this league. But you can do a lot better too, and almost every contender is better at that position. If the goal is to actually contend with those teams -- and it is -- then yes, the Lions fall into that second bucket. They’re looking for their quarterback. And until they land one, that will always be their No. 1 need.