Polian on Goff from today

I listened to Keyshawn Johnson on the Ram’s hating Morning Show on the Ram’s Station, ESPN LA…

zn wrote:

Here’s the podcast: http://www.espn.com/espnradio/losangeles/podcast/archive?id=12474070

Polian starts at 29:30

So far I would say the above transcript is from memory and is not quite right. It gets things a little out of order.

They begin by asking Polian if he believes that scheme is better for him this year v. last year. Polian says, you really can’t tell until about 6 games in. He looks more comfortable than he did last year. He looked so uncomfortable and so lost last year. He looks better. The scheme better suits his talents. He can get it out quickly. He’s pretty accurate. He’s big and athletic and that helps. Against San Diego we’ll get a little bit of what they’re going to look like but with a new team and a new coach and a lot of different personnel we’ll see what we have after 6 weeks (ie. of regular season games). Right now he would say the arrow is clearly up,

They ask, since you drafted Jim Kelly, Kerry Collins, Peyton Manning, where do you put Goff as a #1 overall pick? Coming out of college, would he be in line with those guys? [strange question since neither Kelly nor Collins were #1 overall picks, but, whatever]

Polian: no he would not have simply because in that day and age those guys played a lot of football [ie. meaning in college before being drafted]. Ironically the only question with those guys was Jim Kelly because he had injured his shoulder and didn’t get a lot of play time his senior year. Other than that it wouldn’t be comparable. I mean this is a young man–and it’s not his fault, it;s just the way the game is today–who essentially played one year at Cal and came out [his memory of Goff’s college career is obviously way off]. It’s different world now. It really isn’t comparable.

What are Goff’s skills, why did the Rams take him, how can the Rams best use those skills.

Polian: Good arm, accuracy, 3 was ability to [? didn;t hear the word] plays. [I think it was basically save plays, ie. improvise?]. But it was in an offense that was diametrically opposed to what occurs in the NFL. I compare it to the one and dones in basketball. Players who are picked early without much seasoning and you don’t know what they are. You don’t have any body of work that tells you whether he will or will not be a pro player. What people look for in qbs now is physical qualities. He had a conversation with Wade Philips about this a while back. Phillips said, here’s what we face. College quarterbacks do not call plays, they do not call protections, they’re never in a huddle, they never talk to their teammates because everything is signaled in from the sideline, and then they never take a snap from center and drop back and have to read a defense on the run. So that’s the story. Is it any wonder these kids struggle in the pros? There’s more to it than arm strength but a lot of times that’s all teams have to go on.

Donald still holding out, how would you handle that if you were in their front office?

He;’s clearly the best player at his position in the league so you need to find a contract situation that works. Maybe the agent is trying to create leverage that doesn’t exist otherwise…you never know what an agent wants until you are in a negotiation with them. If you allow that every other agent will try it.

Kaepernick will sign when a qb goes down and if he takes the field all the politics stuff will die down. It will then all be based on how did he perform.