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Here’s what you can expect from Jared Goff in his first NFL start for the Rams
A breakdown of Goff’s skillset, what he showed in the preseason, and how he might fix the Rams offenseGoff was drafted first overall — nay, the Rams felt the need to mortgage their future for him — because he didn’t really have any real weaknesses in college. He was solid in just about everything. His biggest strengths were his accuracy, timing, and footwork within the pocket. Let’s start with his accuracy.
In three years at Cal, Goff completed 62.3 percent of his passes. Keep in mind, he threw the ball a ton: 42.38 passes per game. It’s also important to note that his completion percentage improved each season.
2013: 60.4 percent
2014: 62.1 percent
2015: 64.5 percent
He was particularly accurate on fades — one of the most frequent plays Cal ran in the red zone and, well, anywhere on the field. On those passes, Goff displayed the necessary touch and precision to place the football into pockets only his receivers could reach deep down the field.
Here’s one example:
That’s Kenny Lawler coming down with the pass. Here’s what he told me about those sort of passes last September.
“People think I make it look easy,” Lawler said. “But, man, it’s really easy because of Goff. We have our timing down and he knows exactly where the ball needs to be at the exact right time.”
Timing is the other aspect his Cal teammates raved about. For that, Goff can credit his footwork.
At least that’s what his offensive coordinator, Tony Franklin (now at Middle Tennessee State), told me last year, comparing Goff’s quick feet to Peyton Manning’s.
“Manning will move from the A gap to the C gap feet — feet hot, hot all the time, typing all the time. He can throw the ball back across the field because his body position is perfect,” Franklin said. “Guys who step have to wait until the foot lands before they can throw the ball.”
Take a look:
Goff will need that footwork behind an offensive line that’s allowed 23 sacks — the 10th-most in the NFL.
Goff’s weaknesses are more about hypotheticals than actual bad traits he developed in college. He played in a sibling of the Air Raid, so he handled pretty much every snap out of the shotgun alongside three or four receivers. They didn’t huddle. Most of his reads were pre-snap, as he had to determine whether to hand the ball off or throw it.
Here’s how I described the offense in that article last year:
At the core of the offense are nine passing concepts, five or six screen concepts and five or six running concepts.
“When you learn the concept, you understand the word,” Franklin says. “So when you say ‘sluggo,’ immediately your brain says ‘OK, sluggo means this. It means my eyes start here, there’s a player going there and I’m bam, bam, bam, one, two, three.’ So most of us, within a two-week period, can learn those concepts, they can master that in their brain.”
The point being, mastering an NFL offense will be a completely different challenge for Goff, which is probably why he’s been standing on the sidelines until now. Goff’s biggest weakness is that he had to transition out of a system that doesn’t exist in the NFL.
“I remember watching him in training camp and OTAs,” Rams receiver Pharoh Cooper told the OC Register. “He couldn’t even name the play in the huddle. Now, he’s out there, calling it out there fast. He’s learning his checks and reads. Just looking a lot more confident.”
We’ll find out Sunday if he successfully made that switch. It didn’t come to him immediately, evidenced by his poor preseason.What he showed in the preseason
A look at the best play from Goff’s preseason. NFL GamePass
In four preseason games, Goff went 22 of 49 (44.9 percent) for 232 yards (4.7 yards per pass), two touchdowns, two picks, and a 55.8 passer rating. He also fumbled three times. All of those traits I described above disappeared.
He was not ready for the NFL, even though he spent most of his time playing against (and with, to be fair) backups. That much was clear when I went back to watch all of his passes in the preseason.
Most of the time, he threw short and quick timing routes. According to Pro Football Focus, he attempted two deep balls in the entire preseason.
Out-routes were common. So, the Broncos began jumping them.
He also had some issues reading and diagnosing defenses. Take his interception from his first preseason game.
The Cowboys showed double a-gap pressure before the snap, but at the onset of the play, one linebacker dropped into the coverage while the other delayed his blitz. Meanwhile, another blitzer emerged off to the side.
The issue was how long Goff held onto the ball. The Cowboys showed blitz, blitzed, and Goff was still oblivious to the incoming hit.
He did, however, experience a few good moments. Later in his preseason debut, he diagnosed the Cowboys’ coverage, knew that he’d have the middle of the field open with both safeties shadowing the outside, and hit his receiver for what should’ve been a gain of 30 or so yards to the 5-yard line.
The pass was jarred loose by a defender.
The one critique of the play is that it took Goff a split second too long to release the football. If he threw the pass a bit earlier, that kind of hit wouldn’t have disrupted the catch. That’ll come with time, though.
My favorite play came against the Broncos. It won’t go down as anything more than a completion in the middle part of the field, but it represented Goff’s ability to hang in the pocket, step up, and throw a perfect pass.
Goff’s receiver wasn’t really open, but he recognized the defender had his back turned. So, Goff threw the ball directly above the defensive back’s head. He threw his man open.
But those kinds of plays didn’t happen enough in the preseason. That’s why Goff started the year behind Keenum and even Sean Mannion on the depth chart. The glimpses were nothing more than brief flashes of potential. He looked like, well, a rookie who came from a college system. And that lone weakness was enough to take away from the positive parts of his game.
He didn’t look like the quarterback the Rams drafted. There’s no way around that.
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