http://www.wsj.com/articles/its-too-early-to-call-the-rams-jared-goff-a-draft-bust-1482435256

THE COUNT
Jared Goff Actually Isn’t Historically Awful
The rookie’s performance so far this season ranks right between Bert Jones and Terry Bradshaw, who both went on to have success after slow starts

By Michael Salfino
Updated Dec. 22, 2016 3:39 p.m. ET
The Rams’ return to Los Angeles this season hasn’t gone as advertised. The poster boy of the relaunch, rookie No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff, has struggled in his first five starts at quarterback with many critics already writing him off as a draft bust.

The criticism may be a bit premature. It’s true that Goff has been bad. His passer rating adjusted for the year is 63 on a scale where 100 is exactly league average. That’s third worst since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger for a rookie top-10 draft pick with at least five starts. It barely tops the biggest bust in NFL history, Ryan Leaf, whose career crashed and burned just down the coast in San Diego in the late 1990s.

But Goff’s rookie performance so far this year also ranks right between Bert Jones and Terry Bradshaw. Bradshaw, of course, went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career, as a lynchpin of the famed Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty that won four Super Bowl titles. Jones rebounded from his terrible rookie season with the Colts to become the NFL’s MVP just three seasons later, in 1976.

Of the quarterbacks selected in the top-10, who had the poorest rookie seasons, six of 11 went on to have successful careers. In addition to Jones and Bradshaw, whose adjusted passer ratings were 59 and 64, respectively, Eli Manning (68) has won two Super Bowls, Matthew Stafford (72) threw 41 touchdown passes in his third season and Troy Aikman (74) is also enshrined in Canton. The player ranked lowest, Alex Smith (49 in 2005) has won 70% of his games since the start of the 2011 season.

So Goff’s chances of becoming a franchise QB still seem no worse than they were when he was initially drafted by the Rams. He’ll also have a chance to reset his career with a new head coach and offensive coordinator, since the team recently fired Jeff Fisher. Of course, he’ll need a better supporting cast of players, too.

The Rams (4-10) are hamstrung in that regard since they traded next year’s first- and third-round picks to the Tennessee Titans as part of the package to move up in the draft to select Goff.

zn wrote:

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.

.

well you know. that’s part of why i’m really warming up to the idea of the shanahans. BOTH have an excellent track record with the running game. and again with alex smith what did harbaugh fix? the running game. in 2010 it was ranked 19th. jumped to 8th in 2011 and 4th in 2012. smith not surprisingly saw his qb rating increase as well during those years.

shanahan. both are known for being able to find and develop running backs. kyle developed rbs in houston and washington. ryan is having his best season under kyle. is it a coincidence that freeman and coleman have formed a potent running game the past 2 years?

yeah. just makes too much sense to me.

zn wrote:

InvaderRam wrote:

one of my lowest moments as a rams fan. and there have been many.

That’s right you were at the game.

Sorry about that. If it were up to me, it would have gone better.
.

it was surreal seeing all the niners fans. and this is a niner team that sucks. like really sucks, but they were out there cheering their team. like it was their stadium. i keep reminding myself that hey a lot of these people weren’t around when the rams were still in la. it’s going to take time. still sad though.

but again. i was in a sea of niners fans. surreal.

here’s a niner fan on goff.

===

94niners…

I do not get some of the hate this kid receives from Rams fans. You see, I experienced Alex Smith, who threw ONE TD to ELEVEN interceptions his rookie season.

You guys think the sky is falling with Goff, imagine having non-functional Alex Smith. Man… Goff showed some skill yesterday. Skill in the pocket, and he was able to throw a few solid medium ranged passes. He’s a rookie. There’s no way around the growing pains of that. But my goodness he is miles beyond some other rookie QBs.

I think his future is bright. That’s my two sense. Hopefully you guys won’t be so hard on him given that he’s just learning. He wasn’t even in anything remotely resembling a pro offense in college. Give him time.

zn wrote:

This is not the end of the 2011 season Rams. This is something different.

i think the 2015 rams defense was playoff caliber.

but the 2016 defense did not have jenkins and mcleod. and to a lesser extent long. laurinaitis was just about done at that point so i don’t think that made a difference.

i think a healthy quinn. a dominant quinn would have been the difference but he was not that. so losing jenkins and mcleod hurt even more. so no i don’t think it was a playoff caliber defense.

i think they need to upgrade defensive end, cornerback and safety to be a playoff caliber defense. now what would really send this team over the edge is if they could draft or sign pro bowl caliber talent at one or two of those positions. but just drafting starting caliber talent at those positions would suffice.

quinn is done and the secondary is a complete mess.

need to find a defensive end, cornerback, and safety…

on top of finding wrs and an oline…

assuming goff and gurley are real answers. ogletree too.

it’s a rebuild.

there’s just a complete lack of confidence in what they’re doing. which isn’t surprising. i mean the head coach was fired. your coaching staff is most likely gone. you are likely fired especially if you’re a wide receiver.

this has to be the low point. getting swept by the niners. one of the most pathetic teams in the league truly.

we don’t even have a first round pick…

nittany ram wrote:

He is a Tony Mandarich level bust. Do you think he’ll be back with the Rams next year?

Mandarich was able to salvage a semblance of a career. Have to wait and see if GRob can.

with a new coach i guess anything is possible.

thinking about it. maybe not the biggest but top 5 at least of just rams draft picks in the past 20 years.

PA Ram wrote:

It sort of feels like they’re done with Robinson. Maybe the next coach will have a different take. But at least for now–they’re done with him.

Gurley REALLY bothers me. I hope the heck they can save him and bring him back. I just don’t get what’s going on with him at all. It isn’t ALL the o-line. I just don’t know.

Gurley has a 3.2 yard average.

Cunningham has a 4.8

Austin has a 5.7

That may or may not be fair but it just seems like Gurley is missing holes–if he’s looking at all because sometimes he seems to just put his helmet on the back of a lineman and surges forward, or he just doesn’t have the speed or quickness to break through. I am really concerned about him.

it’s not all the oline. i think the la lifestyle maybe was too much of a distraction? he’s gotta refocus this offseason or something. i hope he isn’t putting all the blame on the oline. he’s gotta take responsibility.

i want shanahan. i think he’d know what to do with gurley and goff.

and i want demoff to be banished from football operations.

wv wrote:

Greg Robinson benched again? Man. I dunno what to say about that guy.

Major disappointment. Gurley and Robinson — major disappointments.

I REALLY am interested in what the next coach does with regard to those two.

w
v

grob has to go. i still hold out hope for gurley.

i keep asking but i’m not sure i got an answer but did boras keep the zbs from last year?

yeah mike shanahan didn’t make very good personnel decisions in denver.

maybe he’d be better if he wasn’t having to handle both head coach and general manager duties.

i find it interesting that fisher says he took the job knowing that there was a pending move to los angeles. even though the move was being denied at the time. not the biggest deal to me. i wouldn’t figure they’d tell the truth back then anyway.

i do agree with him about the qb situation. if bradford had stayed healthy, things might have been very different.

losing mcleod and jenkins was a huge blow. i would have let tavon go and at least signed one of those two. although i have to admit i was ok with the signing at the time. i figured this group would be more able to find and develop a db than a wr. looking back it was a bad signing. maybe a new coach will get more out of him. i doubt it though.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by InvaderRam.

the only thing i can say is that they are obviously trying to appeal to a new generation of fans. a generation maybe people like us don’t necessarily understand.

my guess is spanos has a bunch of market researchers doing a whole lot of work on this. whatever they recommend is likely what he’ll do.

that’s what intrigues me about shanahan. not only had he had a positive effect on qbs, he’s had a positive effect on rbs too.

gotta fix the oline though.