At pro day, QB Goff checks all the boxes
In draft- analyst lingo, Cal’s Jared Goff displayed good “arm talent,” made “all the throws” and did nothing to diminish his “draft stock” at his pro day.
This obviously isn’t news. It would inspire headlines if Goff suddenly looked different from the quarterback who set 26 school records during a highlight- stuffed career that made him a consensus top- 10 draft pick long before Friday’s workout at Memorial Stadium.
Goff clearly possesses the attributes needed to succeed in the NFL: arm strength, size ( 6- foot- 4, 225 pounds) and pedigree. But there’s far more to evaluating quarterbacks and, unfortunately for NFL personnel types, the most
important qualities can’t be measured.
Just ask 49ers head coach Chip Kelly, who acknowledged this week that the difficulty in locating some musthave traits explains the high bust rate at the position.
“I think a lot of times it’s how are they in adverse situations,” Kelly said. “I think the difficulty for everybody in this league is the two toughest things to evaluate, because it’s subjective, is the intangibles and the intelligence in terms of how it relates to the game. There’s not a test. It’s not like putting a clock on him and he ran a 40, so he can do it.”
In the weeks before next month’s draft, of course, quarterback- needy teams such as the 49ers will attempt to discern whether Goff is the next Matt Ryan ( No. 3, 2008) or Matt Leinart ( No. 10, 2006).
That explains why both Kelly, whose team has the No. 7 pick, and Browns head coach Hue Jackson ( No. 2) were among the gaggle of scouts, coaches and executives in attendance Friday. They probably didn’t come away with a better grasp of Goff’s intangibles, but they might have learned more about how he could grasp a football in a monsoon.
After the scripted portion of his workout, Browns quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton handed Goff a dripping- wet football and asked the Novato native to make a few more throws.
“Yeah, growing up in California, they probably wanted to see that,” Goff said. “That makes sense. At the same time, I’ve played in cold weather before. I wouldn’t be the first quarterback to go from California to cold weather. I think ( Green Bay’s) Aaron Rodgers and ( New England’s) Tom Brady have done pretty well.”
It wasn’t just about Goff’s Marin County roots. It was also about his hands. They measured nine inches at last month’s combine, which is considered small for a quarterback. In Indianapolis, Goff had a bemused look when queried about his hands, and he smiled Friday when a reporter noted that his muchdiscussed mitts had evidently grown: They measured 9 ¼ inches at his pro day.
Cracked Goff: “They got me a new measuring tape that’s made for small- handed people.”
Plenty of 49ers fans would like to see their team get their hands on Goff after a 5- 11 season during which Colin Kaepernick’s career nosedived. It’s a realistic possibility and a flood of analysts expect the 49ers to grab Goff after the Browns select North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz.
On Friday, Kelly was joined by four 49ers assistants, including quarterbacks coach Ryan Day. Goff acknowledged he’s also interested in playing for the 49ers.
“It’d be great,” Goff said. “It would be a really cool thing. I grew up as a fan of them. It would be awesome. At the same time, I’d be more than happy to play anywhere.”
Before he discovers his NFL employer, Goff will have pre- draft visits that will allow teams to get to know him on a more personal level. Part of those visits is designed to assess those all- important intangibles.
For his part, Goff said that process began at the combine. Many of the quarterbacks were posed a question about being in an adverse situation: Where would they want to be sitting if they were on a bus that lost its brakes and was careening down a snowy mountain?
“And immediately you guys all think, ‘ In the back’ or ‘ I want to be out of the bus,’ right?” Goff said. “But ‘ In the front’ would be the correct answer if you’re a quarterback. You want to take control of it.”
Goff smiled as he told reporters he’d passed one of his first NFL tests: “I said, ‘ The front.’ ”