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Coy Bacon
Yeah, as you highlight, Goff struggled when things weren't ideal. Being 16 in the league isn't great but isn't mediocre. All teams have some type of adversity. Better QBs learn how to handle it. This is where I want to see improvement. Russell Wilson had some weaker teams and he carried them. Even Kyler Murray is ranked ahead of Goff and Arizona wasn't a powerhouse. We've seen good Goff and we've seen bad Goff. "Bad" Goff isn't bad at all, just average. I am hoping that regardless of the reasons for his mistakes that he stop making them. Fewer INTs, fewer missed targets, fewer poorly thrown balls benefits the entire team.

I tend to be pessimistic but I believe that Goff is going to become better and better over time.

Not many if any qbs handle huge OL issues including extensive injuries. I can only think of 2 and in both cases they couldn't sustain it. I would say Wilson is one of the 2 who have handled that particular issue--in 2017, the Seattle OL had multiple injuries. Only 2 OL played the whole season that year. RW still played pretty well overall, but it caught up with him in the end. He had 5 games with a qb rating below 80 and they lost 3 of their last 4.

Having a "weaker team" is not the same as having an OL compromised by multiple injuries. As I said I can think of only a couple of qbs who could still play well under those conditions. Brady is another (see 2015) but like Wilson he couldn't sustain it and it caught up with him too. In terms of Murray? Last year one Arizona lineman missed 4 games and that's it. That hardly qualifies as an OL compromised by multiple injuries.

So again--playing behind an OL compromised by multiple injuries is not the same as having other types of adversity or having a "weaker team" or "not playing on a powerhouse." It's its own thing and worse for qbs. Which is why no one comes up with multiple examples of qbs who played well under those specific conditions.

An example from Rams history is Bulger.

In 2006 Bulger played well. Then in 2007 the Rams went through the most catastrophic series of OL injuries I ever remember them having. They were signing guys off the street to replace the replacements who had gotten injured after replacing starters.

Here's the effect that had.

2006: 62.9% completions, 4.1% TD percentage, 1.4% INT percentage, 7.3 YPA, avg. qb rating of 92.9
2007: 58.5% completions, 2.0% TD percentage, 4.0% INT percentage, 6.3 YPA, avg. qb rating of 70.3

In 2007, it was the same discussion. Some of us pointed out that if you have huge OL issues, very few if any qbs play well under those conditions. But at the time many ignored the OL injuries and just blamed it all on Bulger. The idea was that great qbs rise above those specific conditions--even though no one could come up with examples of any who had.





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