He reads the D better, makes faster decisions, and gets rid of the ball more quickly, either to an open receiver or to throw it away. He’s responsible for getting the team into the right play and usually does. Trains up the receivers. Runs one of the most complex offenses in the league flawlessly and with very few turnovers. One of the league leaders in long completions but without forcing the ball.
He’s playing at a clearly higher level now. It’s a natural progression aided by responsive coaches who understand what he brings to the table. And by his own determination.
Yup.
But mostly I think he's a better drop back passer. McVay's system, Shanahan, etc... doesn't practice drop back as much as as other offenses. Run and play-action take up the majority of the practice reps. The problem with this is (and to touch base on what some other people have said about McVay not being able to develop a QB) that while all the play action can make the QBs job quite a bit easier in this system, it steals from pure drop back reps. The kind of reps that are super important for, say, for 3rd down (if not, earlier downs). QBs like Stafford ran systems with far more drop back plays and reps and therefore were challenged to and learned to process a great deal of things in the passing game at the highest level.
Goff didn't have to do this as much and notably was not as good a QB when forced to drop back and pass (play-action is not a drop back, it's play-action). In Detroit, there's far more drop back passing and he's gotten better at it. All of the above has happened (as you stated), perhaps because he's doing more drop back.
The problem with the McVay system is that the training wheels for a QB never really come off. There's just never enough reps to go around in practice for pure drop back. That's why importing a QB like Stafford into the system was so great. He already learned everything one could possibly learn as a pure passer. The reps are less important. And the playbook can open up.
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