YOUTHFUL GOFF STILL LEARNING
Look, there’s no question Jared Goff is one of the top young passers in the NFL. Maybe the best after Patrick Mahomes.
As the Los Angeles Rams’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2016, Goff has blossomed big-time since the arrival of offensive whiz head coach Sean Mcvay.
But some want to anoint Goff as one of the game’s superstar quarterbacks already. While he’s close, and in some games sure as heck looks the part, he’s not there yet.
The 24-year-old’s youth and inexperience continue to show more than maybe casual NFL fans realize, and more than he’d surely like to be the case, in spite of the fact Goff has led the Rams to a 25-7 record over the past two seasons, including back-to-back NFC West titles.
On Sunday afternoon, the Rams (14-3) take on the Saints (14-3) in New Orleans in the NFC championship, with a berth in Super Bowl LIII on the line.
It’s consistency that Goff lacks most, as his third NFL season approaches its end. On top of that, he needs to improve in many areas, as do nearly all quarterbacks of his age and experience.
For instance, according to analytics website Footballdb.com, Goff finished tied for first in the NFL for the most fumbles with 12. He lost five of them.
He has lots of company, in that only quarterbacks fumbled more than seven times on the season. Sixteen quarterbacks did so, to be precise. Goff got worse as the season went on in this area, with nine fumbles in the last seven games.
Guess who finished 2018 far below that eight-fumble threshold? Grizzled old ball protectors Tom Brady of New England (four fumbles, two lost) and the Saints’ own Drew Brees (five fumbles, one lost). Think that’s a coincidence? Of course not. In 19 and 18 years of playing in the league, respectively, those two 40-somethings have learned how to take care of the football in the pocket, or when scrambling.
It’s learned behaviour.
Add that and a dozen or two other improved “little things” to the repertoire of a hotshot youngster such as Goff, and you may get a quarterback reliably elite as Brady or Brees some day.
Until then, there will be growing pains on the field.
Off the field, Goff is about as advanced as he could be for his age, as his teammates and coaches have been saying for two-plus years now.
Indeed, quarterbacking isn’t all about stats.
Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks has had the fortune of catching passes in his young career from Brees (2014-16), Brady (2017) and Goff.
Cooks has watched that trio prepare off the field, and lead on it, in all manners of stressful conditions. While he wouldn’t compare Goff against Brees this week, he did rave about Goff ’s maturity for so young a leader.
“You talk about a guy who stays even keel. He operates with such a quieted mind, no matter what’s going on,” Cooks said. “And when you have that from your quarterback, that’s special. You love to see that in, I guess, a quote unquote ‘younger guy,’ but he doesn’t play like a younger guy, that’s for sure.”
In terms of pure passing production, Goff was more prolific in 2018 than 2017, his only two seasons as a full-time starter. His completion percentage rose from 62.1 to 64.9, the exact NFL average in 2018 (a record, too).
Goff ranked above 10th in only three bellwether stats, actually, but they were three good ones: yards (4,688, fourth), touchdowns (32, sixth) and yards per attempt (8.36, fourth).
On the other hand, Goff ’s interception total shot up from seven to 12, and he took eight more sacks (25 to 33). All told, his pass-efficiency rate increased slightly in 2018 from 100.5 to 101.1.
Whereas Goff finished his first season under Mcvay’s coaching on a strong roll, he wobbled quite noticeably early last month. In a shaky road win at Detroit followed by decisive back-to-back losses at Chicago and against Philadelphia, Goff completed just 55 per cent of his throws for one touchdown and five interceptions.
Even in easy, season-closing victories over lowly San Francisco and Arizona, Goff failed to complete as many as 58 per cent of his throws, although he wasn’t intercepted in either game.
He did look good last Saturday night in their divisional round win over visiting Dallas, even if his passing wound up being only complementary to the fabulous rushing performances of backs Todd Gurley (115 yards) and C.J. Anderson (123 yards). Goff hit on 15 of 28 throws for 186 yards. No TDS, but no picks.
The last time Goff had a strong passing game was on that memorable Monday night, on Nov. 19 in a 54-51 shootout victory over Mahomes and the Chiefs. Goff completed 31 of 49 passes for 413 yards, four touchdowns and no picks. Amazing.
That Goff can perform so impressively and prolifically in a game when both teams’ pedals throughout are slammed hard against the metal, demonstrates his amazing talents, his potential, and his grace under fire.
That he hasn’t come close to repeating that performance in six games since then simply reflects his youth, inexperience and inconsistency.
So, which Goff are we going to see Sunday at the Mercedes-benz Superdome?