A lot of people spent most of last season absolutely crushing Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams, after an admittedly terrible rookie season. But even in today’s world of hot takes and instant overreaction, I still think we’re writing him off way too early.
To start, people forget there was absolutely going to be an adjustment period for Goff, as he transitioned from the “Bear Raid”/spread style of offense he operated in college, to the style and complexity of NFL offenses. And to help Goff with that transition, the Rams decided it’d be a great idea to surround him with the WORST coaching support system in the NFL last season: Jeff Fisher (a walking malignancy to offense), Rob Boras (a journeyman tight ends coach who last oversaw an offense for UNLV over a decade ago), and Chris Weinke (a first time NFL coach at any level). You might as well have hired Curly, Larry, and Moe, because I don’t think it would’ve made a difference. And then you put him in an offense with one of the three worst offensive lines in the NFL, and a group of wide receivers that entered the year with a grand total of ZERO seasons with a thousand yards receiving combined?
So, yeah, I get the fact that Goff looked absolutely terrible for much of his rookie season. Tell me what rookie quarterback WOULDN’T look terrible, given how little he was probably “taught” — and I use that term VERY generously — by that band of nincompoops, and playing in one of the most talent-starved offenses in the NFL? You don’t go from being a quarterback prospect touted for his top-tier combination of football IQ, pocket presence, toughness under pressure, anticipation, and downfield accuracy, to someone whose career is over before it even got started, without something going majorly wrong along the way (with that “majorly wrong” being “he was coached by Jeff Fisher”).
Let’s see what new head coach Sean McVay — the offensive prodigy child (he’s only 31 years old) who led one of the most quarterback and receiver-friendly offenses in Washington last year — can do to help turn things around with Goff. Comparing Jeff Fisher’s version of offense versus Sean McVay’s version of offense is like comparing a Speak and Spell with an iMac. If Goff still looks totally lost and overwhelmed under McVay’s tutelage, then the detractors will have ended up correct.
But I don’t think that’s going to be the case. The early scuttlebutt From the spring and summer was filled with glowing optimism, with everything coming out of Los Angeles being about the players recognize what a difference in focus, leadership, and intellectual horsepower the new coaching regime has already brought. The same optimism extended to Goff, who fully immersed himself into nothing but football this offseason (after dealing with all the nonsense of being the top overall pick the year before), and whose teammates have noticed a substantial improvement in his command and confidence on the field. During the preseason, Rams fans — yes, those really do exist — commented that there’s a night-and-day difference between this version of Goff, and the guy under center last year.
Goff will have a lot of interesting tools at his disposal this year as well, compared to the barren offensive wasteland this roster has been in years past (it’s baffling how Rams General Manager Les Snead still has a job, after doing so little with so much — this is the guy who supposedly “ripped off” the Redskins in the RG3 trade; what does this team have to show for that?).
The team signed wide receiver Robert Woods, and later traded for wide receiver Sammy Watkins, instantly giving the Rams the best pair of receivers they’ve had since Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt were still in the league. Tight end Gerald Everett, the team’s second round pick out of South Alabama, is a poor man’s Jimmy Graham. Wide receiver Cooper Kupp, the team’s third round draft pick in this year’s draft from Eastern Washington, is a crafty slot receiver in the Jarvis Landry mold. And McVay is going to use Tavon Austin as a deep ball threat, as opposed to someone relegated to only gadget plays (like he was under the Fisher regime). And Todd Gurley looks primed to return back to his rookie form, after an absolutely miserable sophomore season.
I’m not saying that Goff is going to turn into the second coming of Kurt Warner, or that this team is going to win more than six games this year. The offensive line is still a disaster, for the umpteenth year in a row. The best player on the team (defensive tackle Aaron Donald) held out for most of training camp, which usually results in lingering & nagging injuries during the subsequent season. Their group of cornerbacks is a hot mess, with the top cornerback on the team (Trumaine Johnson) publicly being on the trade block. Oh, and the Rams still have to play the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals four times this year.
In other words: if this team wins six games this season, that should be considered a success. But, that’s not because of Goff. I just don’t buy this premature “Goff is a bust” hot take that everyone seems to have landed on.
