The Goff controversy is a red herring. It distracts from reality.
The Rams are not going to win or lose based on whether Keenum or Goff start. They will win or lose based on the Defense playing well and our oline blocking for Gurley.
Keenum is plenty good enough to throw the football to the right guys. The issue for the Offense is going to be a) good play calling and using the skill players we have to their best ability, b) sufficient blocking and an effective running game, c) WRs and TEs that catch the balls that are thrown their way.
The Goff thing is a media-driven sideshow. There is no way that a reasonably competent veteran QB gets beat out by a rookie QB.
A rookie QB starts if a) the other QBs are not competent or they are hurt, or b) there is a strategic plan to live with the growing pains and start the rookie, ready or not.
We have seen the issue of starting rookie QBs go both ways. They can advance the learning curve and by year 2 you have a pretty good NFL QB with a lot of upside. Or you can ruin a kid by him getting hit too much, losing too much, and him losing his confidence.
Who is to say in any given situation is the best way to go? Either way it is little more than crystal ball gazing, a coaching philosophy, and a lot of subjective analysis.
Fisher's decision is that he believes he has a decent reliable competent QB in Keenum sufficient to win. He said this at the close of last year, and said it before the draft, and has continued to say it since the draft. He has also said that Keenum will start until Goff is ready; and what "ready" amounts to only Fisher and his brain trust know. At this moment, he says Goff is not ready.
So the Goff matter is a separate issue. Is he still the guy they thought he was? Or is he not? Is he the future, or is he a disappointment? I don't know. But what I do know after 50 years of watching football is that it is nearly impossible to know after 1 training camp, and in some ways it is impossible to know after one season what you've got for sure. We've seen one year wonders (RG3), and we've seen guys have a couple of good years and regress (Luck, Bradford), and we've seen guys get steadily better (Brady, Wilson).
Anyway, that's how I see it and that's why whether Goff starts or not is not the issue for me.
The issue is: can and will the Rams win now and grow into a formidable playoff team? And by no means does that start and end with Goff.
So I just don't know if Fisher and Snead are right about Goff, and correct in his handling, or they're not.
But what we are seeing was predictable given Fisher's player-friendly ways, and conservative philosophy. And he did the same thing with McNair (and no the QB starting in front of him was not a top level NFL QB, but he was reliable and competent).
