continuing “the trade” talk (Goff, Stafford)

zn wrote:

Heck the Rams used disguised coverages expertly against Brady in the superbowl and that was the first postseason game where the Brady Patriots were held to 13 (or fewer) points since 2012. Previous to that it was 2005.

Brady also suffered from a serious lack of talent around him. In 2019, he threw for only 24 tds compared to 40+ this year with the Bucs talented receivers.

I found this whole part of the article from one “team source” puzzling.

“Goff struggled to recognize coverage disguises and didn’t consistently identify coverage post snap as the play developed. When a defense ran Cover 0 with no safeties deep, his decision-making process often didn’t happen quickly enough to hit the big play.

“As a quarterback, you can’t lose games,” a team source said. “We just needed him to manage it and do his part.””

McVay’s plan often this year was to put the ball in Goff’s hands. I distinctly remember McVay attacking the Bears and the Bucs with Goff and the passing game. That plan worked in those two games. McVay approached the Miami game the same way, but that didn’t work at all.

The problem for the Rams is that they don’t have anyone that truly scares defenses AND the o-line is average at best. There are NO, ZERO, pro-bowl players to place around the qb, aside from the 39 year old LT.

Even the Lions have a couple of pro-bowl players. If you want to punish teams for blitzing or loading the box, you need a Gurley, Cooks, or Sammy Watkins to make some big plays.

The Rams still don’t have that. And they still have an average o-line with a 33 year old qb who prides himself on being tough enough to take hits so that he can make plays down the field.

This really seems like a bad plan for the future. Kind of like expecting John wolford to step in play like Drew Brees. I wonder what happened to the team’s excitement for “Baby Brees”?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Cal.

zn wrote:

Name any starting qb you want right now and odds are great that only a couple of exceptions will not have shown signs of having some struggles in year 5.

Kurt Warner. Marc Bulger. I don’t know. I don’t follow other teams.

But we’re not talking about “some struggles.” Everybody has “some struggles.”

I don’t have the ability to stack Goff side-by-side with all the other QBs and parse which bad plays are the fault of the QB for not making the right read, or for just not making an accurate throw, or were the fault of a receiver or a blocker, or just a great play by a defender, or what. What I do know is that there are reports from inside the team that are saying that Goff wasn’t “getting it.” You are taking the line that his growth was completely typical, and the problem is McVay didn’t handle him correctly. I’m taking the line that McVay didn’t handle Goff correctly, and Goff has been slow to improve. That’s from my eyeball test combined with Thiry’s and DaSilva’s reports that many people inside the Rams say so, too. Don’t make me come to Maine and set fire to dog poo on your front porch.

In fairness to Goff… the sun doesn’t rise… the world turns

2019, imo, is accounted for by broken Gurley and broken OL.

In any event, I hope Stafford is a quick learner. And the OL is good. And Akers stays healthy. And Jackson still has jets. And Fuller makes us forget Johnson. And Donald finally lives up to his full potential.

You really nailed it. “Lack of class…”. Sigh

Zooey wrote:

Part of Goff’s erratic play was making poor reads. That’s what people in a position to know have said. He just didn’t make reads at times.

Why not? Some people are saying 5 years isn’t enough time. I’m inclined to think that by Year 5, he should have been better. That’s all.

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Staffordite

w
v

Goff’s toxic final days as a Ram.

wv wrote:

Well, the thing was is that they weren’t doing what Jared’s really good at, which is getting in the shotgun and letting him go through progressions and letting him throw the football around. He was under center, faking jet sweeps, play-action passes…

is that actually true? career wise he’s been better under center. significantly better. and even in 2020 he was still slightly better under center.

i think the big problem is that the running game has been not what it was.

https://www.nfl.com/news/kyle-shanahan-to-sean-mcvay-on-matthew-stafford-trade-you-don-t-want-to-get-me-s

When the Los Angeles Rams made the blockbuster trade for Matthew Stafford, both the quarterback and coach Sean McVay were famously in Cabo. Another key NFLer was also in the area but had a different take on the trade of his division rival: Kyle Shanahan.

With the San Francisco 49ers milling around the possibility of trading for Stafford, Shanahan was studying up on the 32-year-old QB.

Shanahan was recently on the Flying Coach podcast with McVay and Peter Schrager. McVay ribbed Shanahan, asking the Niners coach how he liked the Rams’ new addition.

“You don’t want to get me started, dude,” Shanahan responded. “That was frustrating. I was in Cabo. I was studying it all. … I remember looking through it because everybody was telling me it was a possibility. Stafford’s the man. I studied him hard coming out of college, and you always play against him, so you know how good he is. But to know he might be available and to spend two weeks really watching him, Sean, yeah, he’s better than I realized. He was the man. He’s actually underrated to me. I know how good of a guy you got. I know how good he is at play-action. I know how smart he is. Not only does he just have a big arm, but he’s got touch, he knows where to go with the ball. So I was trying to get involved in it.

“… I remember Saturday I was so stressed out and finally we talked to someone, it was seven at night, and they’re like, ‘No, nothing’s happening (with a trade) at the earliest until tomorrow, so you can finish your night.’ So I’m like, alright, I’m done. I put my phone down, talk to Mandy. I’m like, alright, ‘Let’s go out to dinner, let’s have some drinks.’ Half an hour later, my buddy calls me and is like, ‘I’m just telling ya, if you want Stafford, you need to get a hold of him right now.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? We just talked to people. I can sleep on this. We’ll talk to them tomorrow.’ ‘I’m just telling you, you need to talk to him right now.’ And then it was all over.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it came together faster than I thought, too, Kyle,” McVay replied.

“The fact I was in Cabo, man, I would have been there, and I would have made it really awkward on you two to enjoy it,” Shanahan bantered back. “You would have had to tell me to leave.”

A couple of asides:

Apparently, you should go to Cabo in January/February because you might bump into an NFL coach or star.
McVay asking Shanahan about his new toy is something only good friends can get away with — “Hey, you like my new yacht? Bigger than the last one!”
Ultimately, the Rams shipped two first-round picks and Jared Goff to Detroit for Stafford, who L.A. believes can put them over the top after sputtering the past few seasons.

It’d been reported that the Niners were interested in trading for Stafford but never made an official offer after the bidding escalated. Shanahan lamenting all that studying on Stafford only to watch him go to a rival underscores that San Francisco intended to find an eventual replacement for Jimmy Garoppolo. Instead, they ended up trading three first-rounders for the No. 3 overall pick to snag Trey Lance.

At least the film study Shanahan went through in Cabo won’t go to waste now that he has to face Stafford twice a year in the NFC West.