After three seasons and wk 1, where is Goff?

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Kentuckyrams

Hall of Fame
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Apr 22, 2016
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First as a long time and often long-suffering Rams fan, it's a good time to be a fan. But after watching a lot of qbs this weekend and thinking a lot about the end of the season and the Super Bowl last year, Goff's play concerns me, and not just for this one game. I really am starting to wonder what his ceiling is. Part of it is just the inconsistency, not just game to game, but even series to series. Sometimes he can be deadly accurate and put the ball in the perfect spot (like that on the run strike to Kupp against the Vikings - right over the defenders, perfect spot).

But then there are some other games = quite a few, where the accuracy goes, especially on the deep ball or where he just misses open receivers, check downs or 2nd read. There's the tendency to lock on a receiver, and worse, the difficulty with pressure (see Chicago, SB, etc). Granted every qb struggles some under pressure, but the best - Brees, Brady (ugh), Rodgers - seem to rise above it. Goff has shown flashes, too, though, like the KC game and NO playoff victory. Maybe the SB was just too big for a young qb, and losing Kupp + whatever was going on with Gurley + McVay frankly getting outcoached - he wasn't the sole issue. But the Patriots clearly knew they could rattle him by switching looks and by applying pressure.

The Rams will go as far as he can take them. It usually takes either a great qb (lots of examples) or a truly awesome defense (Ravens, Bucs, Giants, come to mind) to win a SB. Our defense is going to be Ok, but not close to elite, in my opinion anyway ( we were, what. like 19th in yards per game last year). In week one - some of it was rust, hopefully, but Goff's rating was below Darnold, Allen, even Garopollo. I just wonder at what point does an elite, or let's say even a very good to great, qb show more consistency, more of the dominant play that you see with the top tier qbs? Other young qbs seem to flash it (Mahones, Wason, etc). I don't know if Goff has a Brady/Brees/Rodgers ceiling ( I have doubts), a Ryan/Rivers level (which wouldn't be terrible), or more a Stafford/Flacco sort of trajectory.

Just really curious what other fans think, especially after we made a long-term commitment to Goff.
 
Leads team to Super Bowl in 2nd full year as youngest NFC QB ever.

After making 2nd strait Pro Bowl, #1 offense over two years.

2nd 100+ QB rating, besting Tom Brady, Manning and virtually every other Hall of famers 1st two years.

Goff will be fine.
 
I too, have some concerns, but I'm not that worried after week one. I think Jared will have a great game against N.O. and much of this concern will give way to excitement.
 
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This Sunday's game vs the Saints should be another big milestone in his young career. I expect him to play well and get us to 2-0.

You're not gonna know the future but he's what, 24 years old? IMO fans have every reason to be behind him.
 
Thoughtful post, Kentucky.

I’ve been a Goff fan since before he was drafted. But like many fans, I have at times had some of the same concerns you mentioned.

The NFCCG win in NO was a huge deal for me. Proved he could win in crunch time with the highest stakes in a hostile environment.

Bottom line for me: I think Goff is good enough to deliver the Rams a Super Bowl win (or 2 or 3) over his career.

Can he be one of the super-elite all time greats like Brees or Brady? I dunno. But he’s good enough to win it all for us.
 
He had a mediocre game. It wasn't bad. Every great quarterback plays a bunch of those in their career, and so many worse games than the one Goff played. Goff's not perfect. It's game 1.

Also Carolina played about as good coverage as I saw this weekend. We took our yards on the ground. They seemed geared up to stop our passing game, and sure seemed to know our plays well. Credit to their coaches and their defense. Also feels like McVay is being a little stingy with rolling out new things. Pretty vanilla for us on O.

Expect Goff and the offense as a whole to get going, but it's not going to click every game. Goff gave us enough to win.
 
This is not directed at the OP, but it’s crossed my mind if we hadn’t had so many losing years would we be more confident?

I mean, elsewhere, I get the constant QB discussion.

But, here? I don’t know. He’s our franchise QB now. Feels like we are getting sucked into the media storylines.

Did he miss some reads yesterday? Yes. I see it every week. Every game I watch. He did seem to miss more than usual... but he didn’t have a crap game.

He just didn’t have his best or a particularly good one. A lot of players could say that... Every week.

We won. I saw a lot to work on. I saw a lot I liked.
 
This was basically the starters preseason and some people think Goff played badly. He didn't, what you saw was the result of him truncating his reads trying to get the ball out faster. It takes time and he will get better every week. He's improved every year under McVay and this year won't be any different. Goff has justified his draft ranking and is still improving. Patience its a process.
 
He is a young QB.
His full development may take years.
Some of the small stuff (that makes a big difference)....quickly going through reads, finding the open guy etc....just take time.
Most guys don’t get the time to develop.
He has done a lot of winning so Goff will have the time.
Situational awareness is another. Sometimes he does well with this and sometimes he does not. Taking an unneeded sack on the first possession vs Carolina is a prime example. He was well out of the pocket and had a receiver on the sideline about 10 yards in front of him. Could have easily skied the ball out of bounds and left the option for a FG attempt. Took a pointless sack instead.
As with all guys still growing there will be hot and cold streaks. We can all see he leaves plays on the field. Not seeing Cooks open several times last week while forcing the ball into Kupp. But, he also makes a lot of good decisions and makes plays.
The good news is Goff has time to develop. This is not the finished product.
Remember when the hand wringers in the press were trying to declare him a bust because “his” record was 0-7?
 
Ask me again in a few weeks. Goff hasn't had a "great" game in awhile(KC shootout), although IMO his NFCC game @ New Orleans was damned good. A gut check performance where most NFL QB's would have folded.
 
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Ask me again in a few weeks. Goff hasn't had a "great" game in awhile(KC shootout), although IMO his NFCC game @ New Orleans was damned good. A gut check performance where most NFL QB's would have folded.

He looked fantastic against the Cardinals at the end of last year. He didn't throw it a lot because the Rams got up quickly and McVay ran A LOT.

Same in the 49ers game. They got way up early and Goff was handing off after throwing 4 TD's.
 
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