Dan Orlovsky Helped Teach Lions Jared Goff How to Watch Film

Jared Goff was mentored by former Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky.

Current Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) and quarterback Dan Orlovsky (8) as members of the Los Angeles Rams. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

A former Detroit Lions quarterback played a pivotal role in the development of current franchise passer Jared Goff.

After Goff's rookie season with the Los Angeles Rams, the team signed Dan Orlovsky to be their third quarterback for training camp and the preseason. Rams head coach Sean McVay, who had just been hired, had a specific plan for the veteran. He was signed to help teach Goff how to thoroughly watch film.

In an interview with Athlon Sports' Doug Farrar, Orlovsky explained just how much the young quarterback had to learn early in his career. It was clear to the veteran that Goff was willing to learn, but it appeared as though the offensive staff in Goff's rookie season did not teach him how to properly watch film.

"'You're not going to do anything in training camp, Dan,'" Orlovsky recalled McVay telling him, via Farrar. "'I just need you to teach him how to study tape, and teach him about defenses.' And this isn't a knock on Jared at all. Jared will tell you this straight up. I go out there, and every day, we would study tape in the meeting rooms. I would then go to Jared's house and he had spent money, because Jared wanted to learn. He built himself a film study room."

Orlovsky remembers discovering that Goff had much to learn, including the difference between under and over defensive fronts.

Whereas he had learned from some of the brightest offensive minds, including Gary Kubiak and Kyle Shanahan, Goff had lacked that quality of teaching throughout his high school and college career.

"I realized... do you know what over and under fronts are? And he's like, no," Orlovsky said. "So he didn't even know — the number one pick in the NFL draft, what an over or under front was. I learned that in high school."

Turns out, @danorlovsky7 is quite familiar with the idea of a quarterback taken first overall in a draft, and given no help whatsoever with NFL-level concepts. Here's Dan's recall of when Sean McVay hired him to help Jared Goff learn to watch tape. pic.twitter.com/a6IV8sydnS

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) May 17, 2025

With recent reports indicated that Caleb Williams struggled to efficiently watch film throughout his rookie year in Chicago, the topic of preparation for rookie quarterbacks has become a big point of conversation.

There was a clear uptick in development from Goff in his second season, which coincides with his experience working with Orlovsky. He was a Pro Bowl selection in both his second and third NFL campaigns, with the third season ending with a loss in the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots.

"That was like the eye-opening thing for me — it was like, oh, okay," Orlovsky said. "One of my things was, and I feel this probably the same way about a Caleb (Williams) or whoever, it wasn't that Jared was dumb. He wasn't taught, right? He was uneducated in that. And so we had to spend so much time, Jared learning defensive fronts and then how those defensive fronts were attached to the linebacker alignment, and how that linebacker alignment was attached to secondary alignment, and then different coverages."

After some struggles led to him being traded to the Lions, Goff has enjoyed a career resurgence over the last three seasons. He was an MVP finalist last season after leading Detroit to a second-straight NFC North title and the No. 1 seed in the NFC.