Despite the Detroit Lions saying their plan was to play their starters for the first quarter, coach Dan Campbell decided in the middle of the week that he was going to rest quarterback Jared Goff for the preseason opener. He felt Goff was performing well enough at training camp that he had little to prove, so an injury risk was not worth it.
“He was playing pretty good (in training camp), he was in a good spot,” Campbell said. “So we said, ‘Well, if we’re going to sit somebody, maybe we ought to sit Goff.’”
But when Goff heard that the rest of the first-team offense would start against the Atlanta Falcons—including all five starting offensive linemen for the first time since last preseason—he marched into Campbell’s office and demanded he play.