views of Goff from around the net

InvaderRam wrote:

. just needs the right coaching.

It doesn’t even have to be THAT. (To push it far to the other side.)

He just needs a running game.

IMO.

.

I am just by nature going to be posting optimistic takes on this.

If you (a general “you”) don’t agree and see critical posts that cast doubt on Goff, add them to the thread. I can’t read them with any sort of objectivity, myself. To me they look too much like post-trauma hyperbole. I can’t help that. That’s just what I see. So in this thread anyway I am not going to be striving to be “balanced.” It will take the group to do that.

Deadpool

I talked to a former college QB and he said typically what happens is that you will go into a pro camp and they will start to fix things that are wrong with your throwing motion (elongated release like Wentz, dropping the ball down like Hogan, etc…) or they start to get you ready to play in an NFL offense from playing the majority in shotgun. For a former Air Raid qb like Goff, the first thing that happens is you are dropping back instead of just catching and throwing the ball. It messes with how you see the field, it messes with your timing which is very under estimated.

Add in the fact that the NFL is 10 times faster then college and you end up feeling rushed. And if they are working on your mechanics you can end up paralyzed by information overload.

2 things then can happen: You fight through it and the new way becomes the default setting, or you revert back to old habits because once the bullets start flying you go to what is comfortable and has worked in the past.

Look at Wentz and Goff. Wentz’s high passes are due to his elongated release, which he had issues with at NDSU, while Goffs lower half is not synced up with his upper half right now because too much going on in his head. Goff is fighting against reverting to college ways while Wentz gave in to the darkside. Goff wants to get this right.

So IMO, Goff’s body is at odds with his mind. When body and mind get back in sync not only will his arm talent re-appear, he will be better for it. Of course like many spread QBs or Air Raid QBs it may never happen. Thats why the draft is a crap shoot.

But they cannot just keep him in the shotgun. Sitting in a shotgun just isn’t practical in today’s NFL. It will only hamper his development. He NEEDS to learn to drop back, do play action, locate options 1 then 2 then 3 and throw with proper mechanics. The other thing that is hindering him is the new NFL rules on coaches having contact with players in the offseason and the reduced practices. If Goff is serious, he will go out and hire a personal QB guru for the offseason.

I think he will be ok. And when I say ok, I don’t mean his ceiling will be average at best. i mean he will learn the NFL game just fine. I think the biggest problem fans have with him has nothing to do with him. If he was drafted 17th overall and no draft picks were traded for him, would anyone be freaking out right now? Some would because its in their nature, but i think most wouldn’t. But then again the only way I would call a first round pick a bust after 8 games is if he literally quit playing football.

-X-

Goff showed some toughness and some moxy against Arizona, getting up and shaking it off after being hit so much. My only fear is that he develops the same pensiveness Bradford developed later in his stint with the Rams. Same got skittish in the pocket and started to hear footsteps. Lotta good analysts started commenting on that, and there was no denying it was happening. He started to check down too much and started to shorten his reads. Changing coaches now is unfortunate, but it could be a blessing in disguise. Someone else with a better handle on designing plays to suit Goff’s strengths could help him to avoid what I just spoke of. Can’t let him get to that point, because he’s too talented. He has an uncanny ability to sense pressure, and he throws absolute strikes in the intermediate zones. Lotta good stuff to build on.

Against Arizona he was holding onto the ball longer than you should, and not delivering on open looks. But I’m not worried about Goff (yet). He’s a rookie, and all the stories about him not being ready were clearly accurate. It takes time to diagnose defenses, recognize formations, know when to get rid of the ball, and when not to. We’ll see if the new system is more QB-friendly and not quite as ‘experimental’. As already said, I am encouraged by his ability to maneuver in the pocket, and he does throw lasers. Just needs to work on anticipation and accuracy, and that comes with time.

But what about the excuses Goff is afforded now? They weren’t afforded to Keenum. Maybe we can cut Keenum some slack now. Played behind the same O-line, with the same receivers, led by the same offensive coordinator, against the same level of competition, with roughly the same amount of sacks. Maybe he doesn’t suck as hard as people think, because if we’re going to give Goff a blanket pass for his production due to his playing with crap and behind crap, then we can easily afford to do the same for Keenum.

I mean, Keenum got blasted for hitting Britt on a sideline pass in one game because – although complete – he didn’t give Britt enough room to keep running because Britt ended up going out of bounds. Meanwhile Goff sails crap over receivers’ heads by a quarter mile, and you don’t hear a peep. Keenum gets sacked, and it’s all “He has no pocket presence!” Goff gets sacked, and it’s because the O-line is garbage. I’m not suggesting we compare the two either, and for all the reasons you gave. But I am suggesting that maybe a little acknowledgement be given to the idea that Keenum didn’t have a world-class offense around *him* either.

I didn’t really care for all the venom that was being spewed towards our QB while Keenum was out there busting his ass, particularly when it came from people who were just Goff fan bois who were disappointed in the fact he was riding the pine for some inexplicable (now, completely understandable) reason. It’s just a little weird seeing all of the excuses for the QB now, when there weren’t any other possible reasons for our offensive struggle then. Allegedly, the only thing we needed to get the offense going (and in some cases, get into the playoffs) was a different QB. Taking in the comments now about how god-awful everyone else on the offense is, that notion is obviously and completely erroneous.

Keenum was always going to be a place-holder until Goff came along, and we were throwing the ball pretty liberally while Keenum was in there. Mostly because the run game could never get on track. It was actually counter-intuitive to do that (throw a lot), but it was born of necessity, so what can ya do? I imagine there was always a leaning towards implementing a more conventional and balanced offense, but it seemed like the O was being pulled in two different directions. I imagine the main vision was to be a ground-n-pound offense, but that doesn’t explain drafting guys like Austin or Goff to fit into it.