IRVINE, Calif. — At UC-Irvine on Saturday, on the first day of camp, rookie coach Sean McVay was about as involved as a head coach can be in one position. It was the quarterback group, naturally. McVay bounded in and out of drills, directing the quarterbacks—most noticeably Jared Goff—with the kind of hands-on coaching Goff really needs. When you start seven games as a rookie, lose them all, complete 54.6 percent of your throws, and have the league’s lowest passer rating, hard coaching is good. And necessary.
At first blush, the completions are still hard to come by for Goff. In throws to wideouts against man coverage, he overthrew a couple open receivers, looking like he was trying to be too fine. The most impressive receivers, to me, were rookies Cooper Kupp and Pharoh Cooper. Kupp is not a great separator, but he is such a precise route-runner; his cuts are on a dime. Pharoh Cooper, meanwhile, competes for balls and looks like he’s been here three years. I’ll be fascinated to watch these two competitive players battle for balls—because Goff won’t throw all his passes exactly on target. “There’s 32 number one quarterbacks in the league,” said GM Les Snead, whose job is likely on the line this year, and some of it due to the choice of Goff number one in the 2016 draft. “Jared’s the only one who’s 22 [years old]. That’s really young for a quarterback, obviously. He’s growing into the job.”
But Goff’s arm is strong enough to make the throws, judging by his efforts downfield Saturday. Club people say the big difference between Goff with McVay and Goff last year is the number of potential solutions on each dropback the multiple McVay offense will afford him. Kirk Cousins, last year’s McVay pupil in Washington, says the great thing about McVay’s play calls is that he’d always be able to find someone—at least one receiver—with an open window for a completion. “Like Kirk says,” Goff said here, “this offense has a lot of answers. On every play, the way Sean conceptualizes things, he gives us at least one chance to make a good play. And with the variables in this offense—the deep ball, the trickeration—it’s still not that complicated for the quarterback. I think it’s a great offense for a quarterback.”
McVay will have patience with Goff, who clearly isn’t going to be yanked early in the season unless the results are putrid. I believe the most important addition to this offense is left tackle Andrew Whitworth. The longtime shutdown tackle for the Bengals will spend his twilight years (year?) protecting Goff’s blind side. That was an excellent addition, and a vital sign for a team trying to let a young quarterback have a couple more split seconds to think under pressure. Whitworth looked leaner Saturday, and he moved better than a 35-year-old tackle has a right to. Mostly, he gives off the air of, I got this. Go worry about some other position. “He’s huge for us,” said Goff. “I love having him out there.”
Time will tell on this coach, and this quarterback. McVay knows he needs to find Goff some completions, and that’s going to be his aim coming out of the chute.
~ max ~
“The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity.” - Alexander Hamilton
