Can Sean McVay do for Jared Goff what he did for Kirk Cousins?
Alden Gonzalez
http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/35343/can-sean-mcvay-do-for-jared-goff-what-he-did-for-kirk-cousins
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins met in Houston, in the days leading up to Super Bowl LI, three weeks after the Los Angeles Rams hired a 31-year-old offensive coordinator named Sean McVay to be their new coach. They chatted for only about five minutes, and Cousins, Goff said, had “nothing but good things to say” about McVay.
Cousins’ admiration runs deep. Shortly after McVay got the job, and thus became the youngest head coach in modern NFL history, Cousins gifted him a signed jersey with the inscription, “I owe you my career.” Cousins was a fourth-round pick who spent his first three years sitting behind Robert Griffin III, but he was finally named the Washington Redskins’ starting quarterback by 2015 — the same year McVay was given play-calling duties as the offensive coordinator.
With McVay in his ear, Cousins elevated himself among the game’s best, most efficient quarterbacks, throwing for 9,083 yards and completing 68.3 percent of his passes over these past two seasons.
Question is: Can McVay do the same for Goff?
Goff and Cousins face off in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at 1:25 p.m. PT on Sunday, with McVay coaching his Rams against an assemblage of familiar faces. Cousins will tell you McVay had “as big a role in my development as anybody,” but McVay won’t take so much credit. McVay was coaching tight ends when Cousins was drafted out of Michigan State in 2012, and Cousins spent his first two years growing in the NFL without him.
“I think it kind of just ended up where we crossed over at a really important time in both of our careers,” McVay said. “We were able to to develop a rapport and share a bond because of the human being, and then also because of some of the things you go through, both good and bad.”
Cousins was 27 years old with three years of NFL experience — albeit only nine NFL starts — when he became the Redskins’ full-time starter in 2015. Goff, however, is merely a 22-year-old second-year quarterback. But Goff also had the talent to be selected No. 1 overall, while Cousins saw 101 others get drafted before him. Maybe, in some way, it all evens out.
“They are both very good quarterbacks,” McVay said. “I really think extremely highly of Jared. As I continue to know him, the more that you like him. What you also appreciate is that we’re getting a feel for each other. We’ve played one game that counts together, and I think as we get experience together, we’ll only get more and more comfortable.”
Goff had a brutal rookie season, with the NFL’s lowest Total QBR among those with at least 200 passing attempts. But this past Sunday, in his first game under McVay, he went 21-of-29 for 306 yards, with a touchdown pass and zero interceptions despite an ineffective running game. Redskins coach Jay Gruden, who remains a close friend, knows exactly what to expect from McVay’s offense on Sunday — but that can only take him so far.
“They’re going to give us a lot of different formations, a lot of change-of-tempos offensively, quick counts, speed breaks, no huddle, a lot of different formations, a lot of stacks, and they’ve got a good running game with Todd Gurley, and he changes it up with good play-action passes,” Gruden said. “I can tell [the Redskins players] what he likes, but stopping it is another issue because you stop certain things, but then they hit you with the running game, or they hit you with the play-pass, or hit you with the bunch-stack deal and the quick game, and it’s a great changeup.”
McVay, who worked for the Redskins from 2010 to 2016, admitted this week that it would probably be “weird to separate the emotional aspect” from this game. The Rams’ video crew set up cameras in the room where McVay and general manager Les Snead learned their 2017 schedule, and McVay’s jaw dropped when he realized he would be hosting his former team in Week 2. “Can’t get beat by big brother,” Snead told him then.
“I know he’s excited,” Gurley said. “He’s just been excited, he’s been pumped up, wired all week. We know how much this means to him.”
McVay has tried his best to downplay it.
“Just knowing a lot of the people that were in that organization, and how much they meant to me, that’s where it has extra meaning,” McVay said. “But in terms of wanting to win this more than the others, it’s our same exact approach every single week.”
McVay’s success will ultimately come down to his quarterback and how well he works with him. It’s why McVay will tell you that “the most important thing is making sure that we think about the quarterback first and foremost. What he likes is really what we like as a coaching staff, and that’s what we’re continuing to figure out and navigate through as the season progresses with Jared.”
They still need a lot more time together, but the hope is that Goff develops similarly to Cousins. Cousins called McVay a “quick thinker” with a “sharp mind,” but one who is also “highly organized” and a “great communicator.” It may sound like standard compliments, but it truly is a rare package.
Asked how Goff can benefit from McVay, Cousins said: “Well, I think Sean has experience working with another young quarterback in myself. He knows what it’s like to try to teach his system to somebody who’s new to the league and new to starting, so this is not the first time around for Sean along those lines. And Jared has all the talent in the world, you know, with the arm talent. And that certainly gives them a great chance, because that doesn’t limit what Sean can do from a play-calling standpoint.”
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Agamemnon
