qbs in the draft: Goff & Wentz

from off the net

—

Kind of Blue/Gold

Scouting profile – Zierlein NFL.com (comped with Matt Ryan – I would absolutely take that, if looking at Wentz being a McNair doppleganger for Fisher, Goff may be for Ryan in the case of Snead – who was with ATL when they drafted him, and he has had success since, probably would have done a lot better without such a bad OL and defense in recent years).
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2016/profiles/jared-goff?id=2555334

Goff “holds serve” at Cal pro day
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000645575/article/cal-qb-jared-goff-held-serve-in-proday-workout

Goff heads combine risers – Brooks NFL.com
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000640517/article/jared-goff-heads-combine-risers-noah-spence-connReuter:%20Goff%20confirms%20draft%20status%20at%20combineor-cook-fall

Matt Waldman Boiler Room #15 film scouting breakdown Going Deep with Jared Goff (VIDEO 5 minutes)
RSP Boiler Room No.15: Going Deep With QB Jared Goff

Boiler Rom #29 Jared Goff and Pocket Presence (VIDEO 10 minutes)
RSP Boiler Room No.29: QB Jared Goff & Pocket Presence

Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TcwdHWD3YU%5B/quote%5D

MMQB

Inside the Film Room With… Jared Goff

While he was on the wrong side of the scoreboard, the Cal quarterback showed the subtleties and savvy of a future franchise QB during last season’s loss at Stanford. Just weeks before the draft, he broke down the game film for The MMQB

by Andy Benoit

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/04/12/jared-goff-california-film-study-nfl-draft

to break down his college film.
The Cal-Berkeley campus is a medley of Beaux Arts buildings, meandering creeks, foot bridges, stone paths and hippies of both old and modern ilk, all climbing up toward the Berkeley Hills. Nestled in there, right about where the Golden Gate Bridge becomes visible off in the distance, is Memorial Stadium. Inside are Cal’s football offices, where Jared Goff stops in on an early spring day.
Goff, 21, has spent his life in the Bay Area sports scene. His father, Jerry Goff, played Major League Baseball from 1990 to ’96 and his mother Nancy, like Jerry, attended Cal. Coming out of Marin Catholic High, where he won three Marin County Athletic League championships, Jared Goff turned down scholarship offers from Stanford, Boise State and Fresno State to join the hometown Bears.
And so it’s no surprise that the night before our visit, Goff, attending the Warriors-Pelicans game at Oracle Arena, was ambushed by fans chattering about the quarterback-needy 49ers, who hold the No. 7 pick in this year’s draft.
Hometown factor aside, Goff to the Niners makes sense. After all, new coach Chip Kelly’s spread system is very similar to the one Goff ran under Sonny Dykes at Cal. But few are concerned about what offense Goff fits in. Though he comes from Cal’s newer-age spread, he exhibits all the traits of a prototypical dropback passer. And that’s how he sees himself. Asked if he could maybe be a part-time read-option QB, in the mold of say a Ryan Tannehill or an Alex Smith, he quickly says no, before pausing. “I mean, I’ll move around if I have to,” he says. “I’ll extend the play and run the ball if I need to. It’s not a preference, but I can do it.”
What sets Goff apart is his handle on the crucial nuances of quarterbacking: moving gracefully and incrementally within the pocket; keeping eyes downfield when pressure bears down; and making throws with bodies around him. This, along with NFL-caliber arm strength and accuracy, was on full display in Cal’s game at Stanford last November. It was a loss for the Bears but a well-quarterbacked game that offered several scenarios Goff will encounter this fall and for the rest of his football life.
Goff enjoys breaking down film. For the next hour, that’s what he does.
* * *
“This is a quads-left look.” Goff says. It’s the fifth play of the game and first that we watch. “We call this play 44 sucker, Z drag. So, we’re running that bubble trying to get them to jump on it with a pump fake—and they almost did. They were in good man coverage. I actually got their slot defender to jump it, but they had a safety over the top, so it was a kind-of dangerous throw. So I just checked it down.”

http://cdn-s3.si.com/images/Goff-A.gif

MORE AT THE LINK (WHICH IS FULL OF GIFS): http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/04/12/jared-goff-california-film-study-nfl-draft

Winnbrad wrote:

I just watched Gruden’s QB Camp. First was Wentz, second show was Goff.

I liked Wentz. I get the Big Ben comparison now. It’s fairly accurate. He looks like a lumberjack playing QB. Had a lot of enthusiasm on the show. I didn’t like the “ball upside down” thing he does sometimes, though.

I have no issues with Goff, but he just seems “not as tough”. Hell, I don’t know how to explain it. He’s probably another Tom Brady for all I know. Maybe I just don’t like the name Jared.

Anyway, both looked good.

Gruden, however, I could do without.

Here’s the upside down ball thingy.

he’s gotta be tough though. he had to deal with a poor offensive line but always hung in there. great in front of pressure.

whatever they choose i hope they choose right. i want them to nail this pick like they nailed the donald pick.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.

How Cal is developing Jared Goff into the next great NFL quarterback hope

By Sean Wagner-McGough | Staff Writer

September 11, 2015

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/25297136/how-cals-jared-goff-became-nations-top-nfl-quarterback-prospect

BERKELEY, Calif. — Jared Goff runs a no-huddle offense called the Bear Raid, slings more than 40 passes a game and takes nearly every snap from the shotgun. But Cal’s quarterback isn’t just another overhyped college signal caller who puts up gaudy numbers against college defenses only to fail at the next level.
Goff, a 6-foot-4 junior, is built for the NFL.

“If you could design a quarterback,” says Cal head coach Sonny Dykes, “it would look a lot like Jared Goff.”

Since winning the starting job as a true freshman in the summer of 2013, Goff has started every single game for the Bears, completing nearly 62 percent of his passes for roughly 7,800 yards and 56 touchdowns. But in Goff’s tenure as Cal’s starter, his defense has been gouged for more than 40 points per game. In 25 starts, Goff has ran off the field a winner just seven times.

Despite that ugly fact, Goff might just be the top pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Goff, like Aaron Rodgers before him, has a shot at superstardom.

“He’s got that calmness,” says Mazi Moayed, his former coach at Marin Catholic High School. “We’d say, ‘Hey, he’s got the Joe Coolness.’ He has that gift.”

But a gift is empty unless it’s harnessed.

Start with the right system

Before examining the skills that make Goff a top prospect, it’s important to understand the system that Goff has functioned within since debuting two years ago. Under the guidance of Dykes and offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, Cal runs a system nicknamed the Bear Raid, a modified version of the Air Raid.

The main difference between the Bear Raid and Air Raid — systems that are both based out of the shotgun and frequently feature three to four wide receivers — is the former’s desire to run the football. Though he hasn’t made it happen yet at Cal, Dykes maintains that he wants to establish a 50-50 run-pass balance. Dykes arrived at Cal at the same time as Goff, and in their first two seasons together, the Bears’ run-pass ratio hovered around 43-57.

Regardless of the play calling, two aspects of the system remain true: It’s fast and it’s simple.

Instead of huddling, the offense turns to the sideline, where players and coaches signal each position group’s role for the next play. By running no-huddle, Cal consistently tires out opposing defenses over the course of four quarters.

The simplicity of the system isn’t so obvious. The easiest way to explain the Bear Raid is by calling it a progression-based system rooted in concepts. Translation: Goff is asked to read defenses on every snap.

“We go through our progression, we throw it to the guy who is open or we run the football,” Franklin says.

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.”

That doesn’t mean that Cal is running only 20 different plays throughout a game. Each concept can be tagged to add a slight variation. A tag, in the words of Franklin, is just a “word that changes something that somebody does.” That something could be the route of a receiver or the protection scheme of the offensive line.

During our conversation, Franklin says that if I were his starting quarterback, I could learn the offense tomorrow. But when Franklin gives me a specific example to illustrate his use of concepts and tags, I begin to seriously doubt that.

“I could run ‘north’ and I could run ‘sluggo X,'” Franklin says. “So in [Goff’s] brain, if I said ‘north sluggo,’ he knows that it’s a high-low read for him. It’s a high-low and then to a checkdown. If I tag ‘X’ … if I go ‘sluggo X,’ he knows now that his eyes have to start opposite of the X (receiver). He knows now that he’s high, middle, low — rather than high, low, middle.

“So take the same concept and I could go, ‘north on pop sluggo X.’ So now, I’ve added four words because I’ve changed the offensive line protection with my play call. So it could be as easy as ‘north sluggo.’ End of story. Or it could be ‘north on pop sluggo X Z takeoff.’ I could keep adding. But in his brain he still keeps going ‘sluggo is a high-low concept.’ It’s a concept-based deal. So he learns a concept, then I can make an adjustment in a game that we might not have ever repped. If I tag it, he’ll know it.”

Got all that?

“It may look like to the defense that it’s a different play,” Franklin says. “To us it’s the same play. It’s just somebody did something a little different.”

Evolving from guessing to knowing

Even on running plays, the quarterback is required to read defenses, regularly deciding pre-snap whether to hand the ball off or flip to a passing play. That decision, which is based on the alignment of the defense, is sometimes made at the exact moment the ball is snapped if the defense changes its look at the last second.

“I’ll call an average of 85 plays per game,” Franklin says. “And probably 75 to 80 of those plays will have multiple possibilities of what he can do.”

Goff realized this as soon as he arrived on campus in the spring of 2013 and immersed himself in the offense.

“We run a lot of run/pass stuff, where we have a run play and a pass play on at the same time — screens or outs on the backside of run plays,” Goff says. “The most difficult part for me was deciding when to run and when to pass, because I had never done that before.”

It didn’t always go well. While Goff stopped short of saying he was guessing his first season, he acknowledged that he had difficulty learning how to read a defense. His teammate and friend, tight end Raymond Hudson, has a better way of framing Goff’s initial struggles.

“He used to be very bad, even when we played Madden,” Hudson says in between laughs. “He was just one of those guys. I’d do something and he’d have no clue what the coverage was or anything. He was always asking.”

Franklin weighs Goff’s decision making in terms of percentages, saying that Goff made the right decision probably 60 to 70 percent of the time in his freshman season. Last season, Franklin says Goff made the correct call 80 percent of the time. This year, Franklin expects Goff to be right about 90 to 95 percent of the time.

Goff also makes judgment calls once the play is already in motion. For instance, when the team runs a play called “four verticals” (Dykes once said they run four verticals 40 times a game), which is just a fancy way of saying “go long,” some of Cal’s receivers are allowed to break off their routes based on the coverage. If a wide receiver cuts off his streak mid-route, both Goff and his target have to be on the same page while the play unfolds.

Franklin attributes Goff’s progress to game and practice reps, but it goes beyond that.

“Occasionally in class you’ll see him peeking at his iPad, just watching some film. He’s always got his head on football,” Hudson says. “Now, he’s got it all down. He knows everything.”

Cut the QB loose

Goff’s newfound knowledge of the game grants him the right to put that knowledge to use.

As a freshman, Goff could only make minor changes at the line of scrimmage. If he saw a particular coverage, he could modify a receiver’s route, commonly known as a “hot route.” Even last year, that was the full extent of Goff’s freedom.

“All he had to do was run what I called,” Franklin says. “And then his options were usually really simple, as to whether or not to hand it off to this guy or to throw it to that guy.”

Now?

For the first time in his career, Goff can change anything and everything he wants at the line of scrimmage. From routes to the protection scheme, he can call whatever he wants.

“I trust him with my job,” Franklin says. “When you’re letting a guy do that, then you’re putting it all in his hands.”

About a week before Cal’s season opener, I watched Goff at the line of scrimmage during practice, wondering if he had transformed into college football’s Peyton Manning. It wasn’t as demonstrative as that. Goff doesn’t stand at the line and bark out signals for 20 seconds. His changes are much more subtle and infrequent, but when there are issues with the play, he recognizes them quickly and makes the necessary adjustments.

On one specific play, just prior to the snap, the defensive line shifted to Goff’s right. Goff responded by gesturing to his running back on his right. He called for the snap and almost immediately a free rusher shot up the A gap. But the running back, knowing full well where the rush was coming from, picked up the defender. Meanwhile, Goff, with his eyes still downfield, spotted the mismatch. He lofted a pass 30 yards down the right sideline. His receiver didn’t break his stride.

“One thing that I like about him is he doesn’t go overboard with it,” says wide receiver Bryce Treggs. “Sometimes you give a quarterback some freedom and he’ll just completely run his own offense and change the whole system. He doesn’t abuse his authority. He stays within the scheme of our offense.”

Focus on the feet, not the arm

Goff might not mirror Manning before a play begins, but once the ball is snapped, there’s at least one aspect of Goff that might draw comparisons to the NFL’s all-time touchdown leader. Arguably the strongest asset at Goff’s disposal is his footwork, which resembles Manning’s feet on Sundays.

“I try to pride myself in having really quick feet and being able to set up and throw balls in time,” Goff says. “Having my feet be as good as I want them to be can get me out of a lot of problems when I’m in the pocket and stuff starts to break down. There’s rarely ever a perfect pocket.”

When Goff maneuvers inside the pocket, his feet bounce up and down off the turf. Franklin calls this “Peyton Manning feet,” adding that they frequently watch film of Manning.

“We get our feet as hot as a typewriter,” Franklin says. “We’re always able to move and find a throwing lane because we’re always having our feet hot like a typewriter.”

n the clip above, taken from the first game of Goff’s sophomore season against Northwestern, you can see just how quick and short Goff’s steps are, which is something that Franklin emphasizes because it allows Goff to release the football at a moment’s notice.

“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 says. “Guys who step have to wait until the foot lands before they can throw the ball.”

Though Goff is by no means a running quarterback, one of his most underrated qualities is his ability to extend plays behind the line of scrimmage, which is a skill that Franklin attributes to Goff’s footwork.

Franklin typically spends a portion of practice putting his quarterbacks through a series of footwork drills while the team works on kickoffs. There’s one drill in particular that Franklin runs with his quarterbacks.

The six of them line up in rows of three, so that each quarterback is across from another, separated by no more than a few yards. One row of quarterbacks holds the footballs. Franklin then spews out verbiage that sounds like a foreign language to me. The quarterbacks nod.

“Hit!” Franklin commands.

The three quarterbacks holding the footballs toss them across to the other three, who put their feet to work, lightly bouncing around in each of their imaginary pockets, scanning a field filled with made-up targets and defenders. They repeat this drill over and over, with Franklin changing the play call every few reps and the quarterbacks adjusting their footwork and eye level to correspond with the call.

All six quarterbacks are quick on their feet, but Goff’s reach another level.

“His feet and pocket presence are amazing,” Treggs says. “Whenever he needs to throw the ball, he’s ready. He doesn’t need to set his feet. They’re already ready to throw.”

Be on time with one’s weapons

Treggs and the coaches rave about Goff’s footwork, but many of his receivers only see the final result of his footwork, leading some of them to conclude that Goff’s accuracy is his strongest weapon.

“Man, that pinpoint accuracy that he’s got is deadly,” says wide receiver Kenny Lawler.

“You just turn your head and the ball is always right there,” Hudson says. “We’re never being thrown into hits, he’s always leading us away … He throws it to wherever they’re not.”

They’re not wrong.

Two years ago, Goff completed 60 percent of his passes. Last year, that number rose to 62 percent. Both Goff and Franklin want his completion percentage to land somewhere in between 66 and 70 percent this season. Keep in mind that Goff often unloads deep bombs throughout the course of the game, which undoubtedly lowers his percentage.

A mainstay of Cal’s offense is the fade. Receivers like Lawler, who Dykes nicknamed “Vicinity Kenny” due to his uncanny ability to make catches on balls thrown anywhere within his general vicinity, typically find a way to come up with catches in the corner of the end zone. While Cal’s receivers garner their fair share of attention for the dozens of circus catches they’ve hauled in over the past couple seasons, Goff also deserves credit for seemingly always placing the ball in a spot that only his receivers can reach.

“People think I make it look easy,” Lawler says. “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.”

Goff’s timing didn’t come immediately. According to Treggs, when Goff was a freshman, “a lot of his throws were late, overthrown and behind us.” But when I asked Treggs about Goff’s best attribute now, he pointed to his timing.

“He can make all the throws,” Dykes says. “He’s a guy that can throw the comeback and the cross-the field-routes, and all those things — he’s got that kind of arm.”

Know your flaws

Goff isn’t a finished product — he’s 6-foot-4 but could benefit from bulking up. He has his weaknesses, namely his impatience and decision making.

“Sometimes I try to force it,” Goff says. “I try to do more than I can.”

Against UCLA last season, Goff cost his team a win when he tried to force the issue. With less than a minute remaining in the game, the Bears trailed by just two and had the ball on UCLA’s 36 yard line. On 2nd-and-7, Cal called “four verticals,” hoping to target an inside receiver and pick up the 10 yards or so required to turn a long field goal attempt into a makeable kick. Instead, Goff was baited by UCLA cornerback Marcus Rios, who initially showed press coverage on Lawler on the outside but then backed away.

It worked. When Goff lobbed the ball down the sideline, Rios played the ball so well that he looked like Goff’s intended receiver on the play. Rios picked off the pass and UCLA burned the final seconds remaining on the clock.

If Goff had simply thrown the ball away, the Bears would’ve had another shot at getting the yards needed to attempt a game-winning field goal.

Franklin frequently emphasizes a quarterback’s touchdown-interception ratio. If Goff’s ratio is 9-1, Franklin says they’ll be a championship caliber team. If his ratio is 7-1, they’ll be really good. If it’s 5-1, they’ll be slightly better than average. Any less than that and Cal will struggle to win.

Last year, Goff’s ratio was exactly 5-1, as he tossed 35 touchdowns and seven picks. Cal went 5-7, missing out on a bowl game by just one win.

Answer the critics

Eventually, another issue will enter the conversation, as it does with every college quarterback coming out of a system other than a pro-style offense. It happened with Marcus Mariota this past year and it’ll happen with Goff whenever he declares.

He never had to run a huddle. He never had to take a snap from under center.

Franklin thinks those concerns are stupid.

“Most little league coaches can teach it in about five minutes,” Franklin says.

Furthermore, shotgun and spread concepts are utilized more and more in the NFL these days. This past May, Jared Dubin broke down just how much the NFL is transforming into a spread offense league. In the 2014 season, 80 percent of all snaps were taken in single and empty backfield formations, 59 percent of all snaps were taken with at least three wide receivers on the field, and 61 percent of all snaps were taken in the shotgun.

I’m not sure if Franklin read Dubin’s article, but it sure sounded like he had.

“It’s a joke,” Franklin says of those criticisms. “All it is, honestly, it’s for a bunch of guys that are NFL guys that want to talk about what it was like in 1931 when they played.”

Dykes offered a similar answer.

“I don’t how handing the ball off in the I-formation necessarily makes you a better quarterback at the next level,” Dykes says. “But people seem to believe that for some reason.”

Goff also dismissed the notion.

“I think that’s overdone a little bit,” Goff says. “I mean, Marcus Mariota was the second pick in the draft and plenty of people must have wanted him. And he was running the spread offense in college. There are plenty of examples. I could go on for days.”

Stay present before the college career sunsets

At this point, asking Goff if he’s turning pro is pointless. When I pose the question toward the end of our interview, he gives me the kind of answer you’d expect.

“I’m not thinking about it at all,” Goff says. “I want to leave Cal with a winning legacy. I don’t want to be a quarterback that has all these stats but didn’t win a lot of games.”

Speaking with his coaches and teammates won’t lead to any clear answers either. But when I ask Franklin about the freedom he now gives Goff at the line of scrimmage, he slips up.

“Next year,” Franklin says, “whoever the quarterback is, probably won’t be doing that because they will have had hardly any experience.”

Wait, so does that mean you think Goff is leaving?

“I mean, obviously, we want what’s best for him, whatever that is,” Franklin says. “If he’s the first pick in the draft, then he’d be crazy to hang around here.” (Of note, our draft experts peg Goff as a top-5 pick in their latest mock drafts.)

Franklin’s referring to Berkeley, where Goff made his college football debut two years ago under the lights of Memorial Stadium.

“I’ll never forget the sunset that was going on,” Goff says. “The sunset was just incredible that day. It was crazy. Berkeley always has those, but that day in particular.”

That night, only the result of the game was at stake. Now, when Goff leads the Bears onto the field, it’ll be more than just a win on the line. This fall, Goff begins his bid to be the first quarterback taken off draft boards this April. That is, if he opts to leave Cal for the NFL.

“Man,” Lawler says after an evening of practice, grinning and shaking his head as he considers the possibility of playing his senior season without Goff. Directly in front of him, the sun begins to set over the stadium. “I hope not.”

InvaderRam wrote:

gotta watch this clip.

Probably these are already posted too but why not do them again.

“The skill-sets are different, the personalities are different, the backgrounds are different, the competition’s different,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “And that’s what makes it such a challenge.”
—————–

How are the ‘personalities’ different?

w
v

wv wrote:

“The skill-sets are different, the personalities are different, the backgrounds are different, the competition’s different,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “And that’s what makes it such a challenge.”
—————–

How are the ‘personalities’ different?

w
v

“According to Mike Mayock, Carson Wentz is a Dora the Explorer guy whereas Jared Goff is said to favor Hello Kitty.”

InvaderRam wrote:

i’m gonna go on record as saying i think goff will be better than bradford. in fact. he might be the greatest 9″ handed qb in the history of the game… ha!

Why all the talk about his 9 inch hand? He can throw the ball great. Perhaps those hands translate to better snap retention?

bnw wrote:

InvaderRam wrote:

i’m gonna go on record as saying i think goff will be better than bradford. in fact. he might be the greatest 9″ handed qb in the history of the game… ha!

Why all the talk about his 9 inch hand? He can throw the ball great. Perhaps those hands translate to better snap retention?

yeah it probably means nothing. there’s even an article which claims there’s no relationship.

“According to Mike Mayock, Carson Wentz is a Dora the Explorer guy whereas Jared Goff is said to favor Hello Kitty.”

probably that wentz is more of a midwest gets his kicks out of hunting trips stay at home fellow.

and goff is probably more of a california boy whatever that means. i did read somewhere that goff likes to listen to taylor swift.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.

Louis Riddick breaks down why he has draft prospect Jared Goff going No. 1 over Carson Wentz in his 2016 mock draft, saying that he has “a lot more faith” in him than others do. (1:03)

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:15303510

Former Cal Offensive Coordinator Dispels Myths Regarding QB Jared Goff

Brent Sobleski , NFL Analyst Feb 25, 2016

Former Cal Offensive Coordinator Dispels Myths Regarding QB Jared Goff

Incorrect narratives can completely warp the perception of an NFL draft prospect. Cal Golden Bears quarterback Jared Goff serves as this year’s primary example.

Over the course of the last two draft processes, the Minnesota Vikings’ Teddy Bridgewater and Tennessee Titans’ Marcus Mariota experienced this problem when multiple inane knocks surfaced regarding their respective games and personalities.

Who could forget Bridgewater’s skinny knees? Or the fact that Mariota “not having any red flags was a red flag,” according to one NFL head coach and general manager, via ESPN.com’s Brett McMurphy.

The predraft process is designed to discover a prospect’s problem areas before an organization invests millions into the league’s incoming talent. But the same process can go overboard and project things that aren’t present.

Nothing as outrageous as the circumference of a knee or how being so good is actually a bad thing has reared its ugly head regarding Goff (so far), but certain misnomers still exist regarding the general perception of his skill set even after there’s been enough time to fully digest his game.

The primary negative narrative surrounding Goff deals with the system in which he played and how it’s viewed as it pertains to translating to the next level.

Concerns regarding Goff extend beyond the Golden Bears’ spread system, too. His frame (6’4″, 215 lbs) and slight stature continually come into question. Arm strength, or lack thereof, always becomes a talking point. The fact Cal wasn’t hugely successful during his three seasons in Berkeley can even be used as a slight.

All of these things can and will be used against Goff when discussions arise about his viability as the top quarterback in this year’s draft class and his potential as a franchise-caliber talent.

In order to build a better understanding of Cal’s offense and Goff, Bleacher Report went right to the source and discussed both with the Golden Bears’ former offensive coordinator, Tony Franklin.

Franklin originally recruited the skinny quarterback from Novato, California, in Sonny Dykes’ first year as Cal’s head coach.

During their three seasons together, Goff was a three-year starter, set 26 school records, broke the Pac-12 single-season records in passing yardage (4,719 yards) and passing touchdowns (43) and took Cal to its first bowl game since 2011.

Franklin discussed exactly what was expected of his quarterback in an interview before he left Cal to be closer to home as Middle Tennessee State’s new offensive coordinator.

Bleacher Report: When Goff declared as a junior entrant to the NFL draft, I found it unique that you put out a press statement at the same time. In it you said, “I hope Jared gets lucky and ends up with one of the few coaches in that league who recognize a skill set and develop it, rather than the one who only criticizes his collegiate experiences and attempts to make football a much more complicated game than it really is.”

Why did you feel it was necessary to put that out there for everyone to read?

Tony Franklin: As a college coach and former high school teacher for 16 years, I think there is an elitist status in the NFL where they look at their game as something comparable to curing cancer and only a few people can understand it.

When I watch NFL film—and I frequently do—I see a game that is no different than college. The only difference is how you teach it. There are a couple of ways to teach it. I think you teach it in a manner of how someone learns. Or you can try to make something incredibly sophisticated or complicated in a long-winded teaching method.

If you’re a good teacher, the goal is to make things simple to the point where your students can be successful.

There’s just some form of an elitist attitude. It makes me sick to my stomach when I hear an NFL coach say, “These college coaches don’t teach these guys anything anymore. It takes me three years to get all of the bad stuff out of them.”

Basically, what they’re saying is anything that is wrong or negative can be traced back to college or high school. Anything that is good is because they’re such a genius.

I believe in the exact opposite. The best teachers and coaches are high school coaches. The second best are college coaches. And I think the worst are in the NFL.

Every time someone comes out and is productive, the first thing they say in the NFL is he’s a product of the system. Why is that bad? Why is it bad to be productive in a system that produces points and moves the ball? As an offensive coach, this is what you’re supposed to do.

If you do this, why is it a negative thing? It doesn’t mean it makes these young men NFL players.

My understanding is somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of Division I players have a chance at playing in the NFL. Why should you create a system that is only to help the NFL be better when 97 percent never play at the next level?

The objective is win games, have fun, score points and be something people want to come and see.

B/R: At its core, the NFL isn’t a developmental league. Have you ever had former players come back and say, “I didn’t receive a chance because I was considered too much of a project” or anything along those lines?

TF: The NFL is a talent league. If you have enough talent for what they’re trying to do, they’ll give you an opportunity to be successful.

I think it’s interesting in the NFL that a lot of the same franchises are always successful, while other franchises are always unsuccessful.

It falls on having good people. Good teams have good coaches. Bill Belichick has gone through so many offensive coordinators. It doesn’t really matter who is there, they’re going to be really good, because he’s the best coach in the league. You never hear them griping about players coming from certain systems.

All he does is take guys who are good human beings with physical skills, and he develops them into good football players.

I believe this to be true of other franchises that are successful.

Sure, it takes some guys longer to develop than others. This isn’t any different from the college level.

B/R: When many look at the Air Raid—or Bear Raid—offense you helped craft over the years, it’s often referred to as a check-with-me offense with simple reads and throws. How do you react to those claims?

TF: First of all, I hate when people call our deal the Air Raid. I don’t like it. It all goes back to a time when there was an offense called the Air Raid. If you ever coached with anybody in that, people take credit and say, “Yeah, they do what we do.”

If you watch our offense, that’s not who we are. We want to run the football. We tried to run the football. If we can, we do run the football. We have a tremendous amount of play-action passes and big sets. We have sets with seven offensive linemen in the game at the same time. We have sets with two or three tight ends in the game.

We weren’t a check-with-me system. There are times in my career where I did that, because it helped us win games. But our offense now is built upon progression reads.

There are many plays when you watch Jared, he gets to his fifth progression. It’s a straight dropback system where he goes through his progression and tries to get to that fifth read within three seconds. If he doesn’t, he’ll be in trouble, because he’ll be sacked.

We do a tremendous amount of run-pass stuff where we have a run play called with a two- or three-route combination on it.

He’s taking the snap as the coverages take place, fitting the ball into the running back’s stomach and needs to make a decision whether he’ll hand the ball off or throw to the first or second read in the progression.

It’s all based on post-snap reads.

Another thing we do with him, he was able to change protections at any time. He was allowed to change the play at any time. He probably had to do more than any NFL quarterback does right now.

A lot of what Jared did: I call a play with two or three guys running routes within the play. Pre-snap, he can come up and change everything. He could change the play completely if he wanted to do so. He could just change the protection. Or he could wait until the ball is snapped and make a decision based on what the defense did.

I try to make everything simple for the quarterback, but it doesn’t mean it’s simple. It’s my job to make him believe what he’s doing is simple. So, we tried to teach in simplistic terms.

Instead of saying, “when they’re in Cover 8 or 6 and the safety does this, you automatically do that,” I didn’t give him automatics. We talked in theories. Theoretically, this is what they’re trying to do, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to work.

Ninety percent of defensive coordinators after something went wrong with a player say, “We misaligned,” or “we didn’t get the check,” or “the strong safety got the check, but the free safety didn’t.”

Most of the time, defenses don’t know what they’re doing.

If I tell Jared as a quarterback, “If the safety does this, you should automatically go to this,” I’m not giving him rules that actually work. I’m giving him rules that are supposed to work. It doesn’t mean they do.

What I do is teach him what they’re trying to do. Therefore, if there is something easy within the progression and you want to take it, great, do that.

Otherwise, let’s go through the system and see if one, two, three, four and five are going to work if we’re dropping back like we’re supposed to.

B/R: It’s not always about the system. There are traits that allow an individual to separate himself from everything else. Could you go into more depth of a progression-read offense and what you’re teaching quarterbacks?

TF: For example, the play we call is North-Whip-Z. We’re in a two-by-two formation. Regardless of how the running back lines up, the quarterback’s understanding is we’re running a play with a high, medium and low read.

At the beginning of the play, he’s going to identify whether he has a one- or two-safety look. We understand a two-safety look prior to the start of the play might not remain the same once the ball is snapped.

Does it look like they’re going to be in man or zone coverage? Does it look like they’re going to blitz? If they are going to blitz, is it a man or zone blitz?

Having all that information in his brain helps him determine how fast he must get through his progression.

His progression on the aforementioned play is going to start with a corner route. The corner route is going to come opposite of the tag. For example, I called North-Whip-Z. In my brain, I know the Z (receiver) is on the right side. Therefore, the corner route is going to be on the left side.

If they’re in a two-safety look, I’m going to catch the ball, start in my drop and take a really long, slow first step. By the time I finish my first step, I’ll know whether they stayed in two safeties. If they stayed in two safeties, my eyes are going to stay on that corner route until I hit my last step.

Once I hit my last step, if I have enough grass, the corner hasn’t bailed and I’m talented enough to fit the ball there, I’m going to throw the corner route.

If the safety opened his hips and came off the hash mark, I know I have a chance with the sluggo route. In the NFL, they call it a slant-and-go. It means he is coming off the hip of the Y (receiver) on a corner route, and he’s going to split the two safeties.

If I didn’t throw the first read in the progression, my eyes are now going to go to the second read in the progress. The second read is the post route. If there is enough grass, they’re still in Tampa 2 and the “Mike” (linebacker) didn’t drop too deep, the quarterback should be able to fit the ball in there.

However, let’s say the Z (receiver) got rerouted along the way. I hit my last step. I came off my first and second reads. I immediately must go to the third read.

The third read is by the running back. He runs what we called a hold route. He went and tried to grab the dropping Mike backer to get his attention and pull him back. If the Mike got too deep, the running back is coming to an eight- to 10-yard hook route. If he’s open, I’m on it as my third read.

If the running back isn’t open, the last thing to get the quarterback out of the play is a whip route by the outside receiver. The outside receiver pushed up the field three steps. He then pushed inside five steps. On the fifth step, he stuck his toe in the ground and went back to the sideline. That’s the quarterback’s get-out-of-trouble guy.

Anywhere along the way if I noticed they rolled the safety one way, I know I’m likely not going to get the corner or post routes, but I’ll have the hold or whip routes.

However, your guy, Jared Goff, tells you the safety got too much depth and he’s good enough to throw a skinny post between the corner and the safety. If his talent allows him to do that, I’m going to throw that wrinkle into the play.

There’s an example of it against the Texans Longhorns. Jared hit his last step. They rolled to a single safety. He threw a perfect back-hip toss. If he threw it to his receiver’s front hip, the safety could have made a big hit. It turned into a 20-yard pickup.

That’s why he’s an NFL player versus other quarterbacks I’ve had. They may have been the best player in the league, but they can’t make that throw.

B/R: When some argue Goff needed another year in school to develop, what exactly does that mean? It seems so cliche simply because he only played three years as a true junior. Did you feel the same way—other than for selfish reasons?

TF: When Aaron Rodgers went to the NFL, was he ready to play in the first year? Nobody knows, because he didn’t need to play.

He sat there three years behind a Hall of Fame player in Brett Favre. Everyone says that’s the ideal situation.

Andrew Luck then comes in and plays from the beginning, and he’s a great player. Everyone says, “Well, the system prepared him to be great.”

Luck didn’t have the best year this past season before getting hurt. So what happened? Did he get worse? Was he coached to the point he was coached out of him? Did the talent around him get worse?

Nobody really knows, but everyone has an opinion on the subject.

With Jared—first of all—any time a young player has an opportunity to be a first-round pick, he should take it. It’s easy for all of those sitting behind a desk to say he isn’t ready and should stay another year.

Why? Why should he stay another year?

If you have an opportunity to obtain a life-changing income that most of us work 50 years and never make, why would you do that?

Second, the only time you ever get truly ready is to go somewhere and play. Nobody is ready until he gets a chance to go out there and do it.

Jared will physically get bigger and stronger. He did so over the years during his time at Cal. Whether or not he’s successful will depend on the team he goes to, the talent around him and how good of coaching he gets.

B/R: You mentioned both Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck, but let’s take this to a more personal level. You were on Kentucky’s staff when Tim Couch was the Wildcats quarterback before being selected No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 1999 NFL draft.

What similarities and differences do you see between him and Goff?

TF: There are a lot of similarities in the fact they both had phenomenal feet. That’s the one thing we worked incredibly hard at with Jared. We wanted him to have Peyton Manning feet. Manning is the one guy in the NFL who consistently gets more accurate throws because of his footwork.

We want them to be incredibly hot, like a typewriter. He’s always ready to throw the ball. He finds throwing lanes by moving his feet into proper position without taking steps. That’s what we teach.

The one thing everyone seems to be in consensus about Jared is he has a great feel for the rush, finds throwing lanes and his footwork.

That’s the one thing about him: He doesn’t get rattled. Tim was the same way. Tim didn’t get rattled. He found throwing lanes. And he was incredibly accurate.

The difference with Jared, he has a much better arm than Tim had. Tim had an average arm at best. Jared has a far livelier arm.

People call Tim a huge bust. I don’t think he was a huge bust. If you go back to what he did, the franchise was a huge bust. Tim eventually had some shoulder issues and couldn’t throw the ball very well at all by the end of his career.

They both love playing football. Jared would go out and play even if nobody watched. Tim was the same way. Jared wants to study the game.

My advice to him was to get a really good coach to prepare for the NFL draft process and listen to all the advice you can get. Ultimately, be who you are and what got you to this point while developing his own style.

If you watch the great ones, they all have something that’s their own.

During his career, he’ll likely have eight to 10 quarterback coaches. If he listens to every one of them, he’ll be completely screwed up.

B/R: Couch suffered greatly in the NFL due to a shoddy offensive line. Constant pressure can ruin a career. Goff was under duress quite a bit during his Cal career as well. Has there ever been any question about having to deal with constant pressure and how he responded?

TF: Jared got hit a lot. A lot of it was due to our run-pass options. We would have a run play called and the offensive line is blocking for that play, and he has three- or four-receiver routes off the run play.

Jared understood he was going to take one right in the mouth on some of those plays, but he had a potential touchdown by making the pass. He threw it and got hit in the mouth.

To me, this is one thing I saw in him: Jared Goff never flinched in three years of taking brutal hits.

He handles pressure as well as any quarterback who will ever play. He understands it. He shows zero fear. He has a great natural feel in the pocket. That’s something you’re born with.

He’s been trained incredibly well to work really hard in finding throwing lanes. He does a great job of doing so.

He doesn’t panic when a free blitzer comes through the line. He doesn’t panic when an O-lineman loses a D-lineman. He’ll wait until the last second before making his throw, and he’ll take shots because of it.

B/R: His ability to take punishment obviously leads into the next question. Goff is 21 years old, a true junior and listed at 215 pounds. He’s viewed as having a slight frame. Can you tell us how much weight he’s actually put on during his three years at Cal and how sturdy he can be as an NFL quarterback?

TF: I don’t know the actual number, and I’m guessing a bit here, but he’s put on at least 30 pounds. He came in as a pencil. He worked really hard to do so through his nutrition and the strength program.

He’s like most young men. When you’re 21 or 22 years old, they haven’t reached their full strength or muscle structure. It’s one of the reasons why I think he’ll continue getting better.

The product you have right now is good enough if surrounded by the right players. He’s good enough to be a successful quarterback tomorrow.

If he’s not surrounded by good players, he’ll be the same as every other quarterback who entered the NFL, and he’ll take a beating. It then comes down to luck whether he holds up or not.

I think his body structure and strength will continue to get better, and it’s good enough now to survive for a team that can protect him.

(Goff’s official measurements at the NFL combine came in at 6’4″and 215 pounds with nine-inch hands, per ESPN.com’s Louis Riddick.)

B/R: One thing often undersold during the draft process is a player’s off-the-field stuff. If I asked about his work ethic, study habits, how his teammates view him and overall intangibles, could you tell us about the person you saw every day on and off the field?

TF: The No. 1 quality he has that separated him from any great player: He showed zero selfishness. He never cared about stats.

When he broke Marcus Mariota’s (Pac-12 Conference) record for most passing touchdowns in a season, I would bet you any amount of money that he didn’t have any idea what the record was. The same thing for yardage records.

At the end of ballgames—whether they were close or blowouts—he would come to me and tell me to run the football if we needed to do so. He didn’t care if we pounded the ball. He wanted to win the game.

Teammates could have easily been jealous due to all of the recognition he received. But he always took the criticism on himself. He always praised his teammates.

When you have that type of personal leadership and the understanding of it, teammates never get jealous. That’s what he had: teammates who supported him, weren’t jealous and knew all he wanted to do was win.

The other thing that was amazing to me is we had six guys catch 40 or more balls. I believe it’s only the second time in college football history. We also had three running backs run for over 500 yards. Jared did a phenomenal job of distributing the ball to the open guy.

He also realized if one of his targets didn’t have a catch, he needed to get him the ball.

As for his work ethic, my office was right next to the film room. I believe in meetings being short—only 30 to 45 minutes. A lot of film work for a quarterback who plays for me is done on their own. I’m not making you do it. I just know if you’re doing it, you’ll be great. If not, you’re probably not the starter.

He was one of those guys in the film room who studied, constantly asked questions and wanted to learn all of the time.

And he’s not a guy you’re going to read in the papers doing something he shouldn’t be doing. He’s a good guy. A fun guy. He goes out with his teammates, and they appreciate it.

He also understands he needs to train his body to be the best he can be, and he’s being watched all of the time.