The Athletic: Criticism didn’t change Goff & neither will big $

[theathletic.com]


On the verge of a contract extension that is expected to pay him the most guaranteed money in NFL history, Jared Goff sure didn’t act like someone about to ink a life-changing deal.

In fact, as he casually scrolled through his phone while kicking back at his locker at the Rams’ practice facility Monday afternoon, his only concern involved getting to a quarterbacks meeting on time. That was triggered when he looked up and saw some reporters milling about, a sure sign that coach Sean McVay had finished his daily news conference.

“Wait, is Sean finished?” Goff finally asked, sounding a bit curious and a tad anxious.

It had dawned on Goff that McVay was probably pacing around an office somewhere waiting for Goff and backup Blake Bortles to show up.

“Yup,” someone answered.

“Oh shoot,” Goff said. He scrambled to get his things together and bounced out of the room so quick you would have thought Khalil Mack was breathing down his neck. Bortles was right behind him, practically pushing Goff as they hurried out the door. They presumably made it in time, a good thing given that McVay already was in full-blown game-planning mode for Sunday’s season opener at Carolina. A red area under McVay’s neck always is the tell-tale sign he’s all business, and on Monday it burned so bright it nearly melted a hole in the wall.

Goff’s sprint out of the locker room provided more than just a bit of comic relief. It offered a clear view into Goff the quarterback and the person.

On the day before one of the biggest moments of his life, Goff was just typical old Goff. No hint whatsoever that he was about to reset the NFL quarterback pay scale in a major way, as he will top the $107 million in guaranteed money the Philadelphia Eagles awarded Carson Wentz in a record-breaking contract extension in June

Goff’s new deal, agreed upon Tuesday, means he will be under contract to the Rams for six more seasons for a total of $161 million. The four-year extension, a team source said, is worth $134 million, with $110 million guaranteed.

Given Goff’s makeup, there won’t be the slightest bit of apprehension as he prepares to shoulder an even heavier load of responsibility for the Rams’ future. He’s not just their franchise quarterback, but the absolute face of the franchise. That’s evident in the offensive burden he shoulders on game days and with every dollar the Rams deposit into his bank account each week.

The Rams are making that abundantly clear.

But while Goff’s salary changes, big time — as does his clout and his standing in the NFL and all the pressure that comes with those sweeping changes — don’t expect the quarterback or the person to change.

In fact, count on all that remaining exactly the same, just as it did after a disastrous 2016 rookie year in which some people too quickly declared the first overall pick in the draft a bust. Goff casually flicked the rough start and the nonstop criticism off his chest, like lint on a sport jacket, and delivered a fabulous sophomore season under McVay to completely flip the narrative on him and on the Rams as an organization.

Goff was named to the Pro Bowl in 2017. The Rams won their first division title in 14 years and notched their first winning season since 2003.

The next season, some of the same pundits stubbornly began applying the dreaded “system quarterback” label to Goff, and atrributed the bulk of his success to McVay’s mastery. It was their way of begrudgingly giving Goff some credit while also protecting their lazy assumptions.

Never mind that McVay, a coach as smart as they come, would laugh that notion out of the room if confronted with it face-to-face. He told anyone who would listen it was all a bunch of hogwash, this idea that he could insert any quarterback into his offense and magically get the kind of elite numbers Goff produced. McVay dismissed any idea that he was biding his time before he could clear out Goff and bring in “his” guy.

As if great quarterbacks are sitting around, a phone call away.

They never understood that, as McVay went through the interview process with the Rams in 2017, he did his homework on Goff and that much of the appeal of the Rams involved the fondness he developed for the quarterback. McVay’s ascent to a head coaching position was imminent, whether with the Rams in 2017 or somewhere else in the near future. He would get his shot, so he didn’t need to jump at the first offer that came his way.

And as an offensive coach, McVay knew his early success would be directly tied to the quarterback he aligned himself with. The deep dive McVay took into Goff — and when McVay does a dive, he goes all the way to the bottom of the ocean — convinced him Goff was an ideal quarterback to hitch his wagon to, rough rookie year and all.

McVay has explained that over and over for the last three years. Not everyone got the message. Many kept qualifying every bit of Goff’s success in ways that denied him full credit. Maybe the new contact, which lassos McVay to Goff well into the next decade, will finally correct the error of their ways.

But while McVay scoffed at the backhanded compliments paid to his quarterback, Goff simply shrugged, went out and led the Rams to the Super Bowl, their first since 2001, and made gigantic strides from his second year to his third. Yes, he had a rough game in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, but so did McVay and everyone else involved with the Rams’ offense.

Two weeks earlier, in the NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints — on the road and in one of the loudest, craziest atmospheres in all of sports — Goff brilliantly helped dig the Rams out of an early hole and punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.

And it was Goff who matched Patrick Mahomes throw for throw and led the Rams to a thrilling win over the Kansas City Chiefs on a spectacular Monday night in Los Angeles. It was Goff who outplayed Kirk Cousins, Philip Rivers, Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Russell Wilson (twice) while leading the Rams to their second straight NFC West title, a 13-win season and a conference championship.

All of that put Goff on the fast track to the richest guaranteed contract in NFL history. Given Goff’s yearly improvements, the continued growth of McVay and the deep, talented rosters constructed by general manager Les Snead and his staff, it figures to pay off handsomely in the future. No team is better set up than the Rams for a prolonged run of success.

Goff is the right quarterback with the right makeup and the perfect skill set for the Rams, whether everyone wants to admit it or not. It’s not always possible to understand what you can’t see — or sometimes refuse to see — but McVay and the Rams understand exactly what they have in Jared Goff. The financial commitment they are making confirms it: He is their franchise quarterback.

Just don’t expect any of it to change him. For Goff, it’s always been steady as it goes.

And on the day before the biggest day of his life, that meant getting to the Rams’ quarterback meeting on time.