In 2016, the NFL is pretty much one giant glob of mediocrity. Other than the Dallas Cowboys on one extreme, and the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars on the other polarity, no one in the league is really THAT elite or poor.
The Los Angeles Rams are one of those teams in that monstrous muddled middle. They’re not good enough to be real postseason contenders, not poor enough to be in full rebuild mode.
It’s like Dr. Julius Hibbert described Bart Simpson’s evil twin Hugo, “too much of a boy for crazy town, too crazy for boys town.”
Thus the debate ensued about whether the L.A. Rams were too trigger happy or not in starting Jared Goff at this point.
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘is this just to placate the Los Angeles fans’? That’s a dangerous thing to do because you need to make sure you don’t sacrifice the long-term for the short-term,” said former NFL Executive and current CBS Sports Network Analyst Amy Trask.
“If you have your suite people and your club seat people and your marketing people saying ‘you have to play him, you have to play him’. Well if you play him too soon and he doesn’t succeed, you have a worse problem… Jeff Fisher would want to make the decision that is in the best interest of Jared Goff,” the woman nicknamed the Princess of Darkness by Oakland Raiders fans.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on Jared Goff’s first career start today versus the Miami Dolphins:
“I talked to Rams quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke about this. First of all, he said he trusted the process that Jeff Fisher had, believing that Goff is ready now finally. He said he does have control of this huddle after not huddling or really making play calls in college.”
“You know when you have a rookie quarterback, the assumption would be that you pair down the playbook just to give him some stuff that he understands. Weinke told me that is not the case, they will actually be expanding the playbook because of Goff’s rare arm talent, he can just do more things and spread the field in different ways. For that same reason, Weinke thinks the running game, especially with Todd Gurley, will be improved.”
The result was a 14-10 loss at home to the Miami Dolphins in crappy weather. The top pick in the draft out of California finished 17-of-31 passing for 134 yards, the worst output for L.A. since opening day. The Rams have the worst scoring offense in the NFL, but Jared Goff, despite the ugly numbers, was still an improvement over Case Keenum, who threw eight interceptions over his last five starts.
“He took some hits, he kept on ticking, he didn’t do anything crazy, and he’s only gonna get better from here.” – Steve Mariucci on Jared Goff’s debut at quarterback.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.