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Jared Goff suffering from Rams' poor judgment, uncomfortable environment
September 7, 2016 6:27pm EDTSeptember 7, 2016 11:30am EDTLos Angeles has totally botched its handling of No. 1 draft pick Jared Goff.
NFL
By Alex Marvez
Published on Sep. 7, 2016
In the NFL, honesty with the media isn't always the best policy.
Jared Goff is quickly learning that because the Los Angeles Rams forgot.
The franchise's giddiness when making Goff the top pick in April's draft was way too evident when coach Jeff Fisher spoke from his heart and not his head following the selection.
Although he wouldn't immediately name Goff his starting quarterback like other clubs have when addressing the position with the No. 1 overall choice, Fisher did little to temper such expectations heading into the 2016 season.
"It’s going to happen pretty soon," Fisher said during a news conference. "Sooner than probably later."
Instead, such a move will be happening later than sooner. Maybe much later.
Goff not only failed to push journeyman Case Keenum for the first-string job during the preseason. He won't even dress for Monday night's opener, with 2015 third-round pick Sean Mannion handling backup duties.
The slow-play may very well be remembered as a prudent move. As shown on Hard Knocks, the 21-year-old Goff is so green he didn't know the sun rose in the east. He also turned pro following his junior season at Cal, which used a spread-style attack that requires Goff to make the challenging transition to an NFL offense.
Riding the bench right now isn't the end of the world, either. Carson Palmer and the late Steve McNair — a Fisher protege dating back to the Houston Oilers of the mid-1990s — are among the high QB picks who sat as rookies before enjoying prolific NFL careers.
If Goff isn't ready, he isn't ready. It's better to accept that reality than throw him to the wolves a la what happened to high-profile prospects like David Carr, Joey Harrington and Blaine Gabbert. All of them picked up bad habits from playing prematurely and had their confidence shattered. Carr and Harrington never recovered. Gabbert is still trying to get on track five seasons later In San Francisco after washing out in Jacksonville.
Such history, though, is being forgotten as some media and fans already have started associating Goff with another four-letter word: Bust.
Yes, it's silly. But that reality doesn't insulate Goff from outside negativity that can seep into his subconscious. His friends and family surely hear it, which exacerbates the problem.
Fisher and Rams general manager Les Snead also have put themselves in the firing line with how everything has unfolded. A duo that never found a quarterbacking answer during four seasons in St. Louis — wither Nick Foles — is being second-guessed again for sending a boatload of draft picks to Tennessee for the chance to draft Goff while another passer who was available will be starting in Week 1.
This brings us to the team that handled the situation with far more savvy — Philadelphia.
From the minute Carson Wentz was drafted at No. 2 behind Goff, the Eagles insisted he would serve as a third-stringer entering the regular season. The stance continued throughout training camp even as the North Dakota State product displayed earmarks in practice that his development was ahead of schedule.
Neither first-year head coach Doug Pederson nor general manager Howie Roseman ever let on publicly that Wentz could potentially make starter Sam Bradford expendable. Yet that's exactly what happened last week, when Bradford was dealt to quarterback-desperate Minnesota following Teddy Bridgewater's knee injury.
Explaining the reasons for Wentz's promotion to co-host Gil Brandt and me last Monday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Roseman said, "It's just his feel for the game, his study habits and where he was mentally even though he was missing (practice) reps the last couple weeks. He has done such a great job picking up the offense.
"He’s such a sharp guy and then there's obviously the physical tools you see that made him the second pick in the draft."
Whether Wentz is actually ready for his regular-season debut Sunday against visiting Cleveland is dubious, especially because he played in only one preseason game as a reserve before suffering a rib fracture. But unlike the Rams, the Eagles created a comfortable environment that allowed Wentz to hone his craft away from the kind of glaring spotlight Goff is under.
"Every day in training camp he’d make a throw that would just make you go, 'Wow!'" said Roseman, who, like the Rams, traded multiple draft picks to acquire a projected franchise quarterback in Wentz. "I always joke that he'd do that and then all of a sudden he'd take off and run and you'd remember he could do that, too.
"In terms of when you knew he was ready, what you saw from him is total command whether he was with the third-stringers or having a workout with (wide receiver) Jordan Matthews when rehabbing. It's total confidence. That's the most impressive thing.”
To better shield Goff from the scrutiny he is under, the Rams should have remained as coy and vague as possible about his chances for immediate action. Had he ended up winning the starting spot, Fisher could have borrowed a line from Roseman by bluntly telling reporters, "Circumstances change."
Unfortunately for Goff, there's no going back by Rams brass to fix what was a preventable error in judgment.
