Los Angeles Rams: 5 Reasons Jared Goff Will Live Up to the Hype

Los Angeles Rams, Jared Goff, Sean McVay
(Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)

No. 1: Playing to Jared Goff’s Strengths

Every quarterback has his own weaknesses, and Jared Goff is no exception. Sure, there are concerns to Goff’s game.

This Twitter thread, from 49ers Webzone’s Rich Madrid, highlights some of the areas in which Goff must look to improve. Fortunately for Rams fans, there’s a lot to like too. And as noted on the previous slide, Sean McVay’s system does more than enough to cover up some of the quarterback’s weaker tendencies.

There are generally two key aspects to look at for a quarterback’s relative success to the league — how he performs in the red zone and his effectiveness on third down.

Football Outsiders’ ALEX metric takes a look at the matter. Jared Goff had a third-down passer rating of 106.9 last season, the highest out of any down. But if a quarterback completes a pass short of the first-down marker, which would boost a passer rating, it still doesn’t translate to a first down, hence hurting the offense. And this is where ALEX comes in.

Goff wasn’t particularly strong here, posting a plus-0.1 ALEX in 2017, which was still positively graded but just above negatively graded quarterbacks like the Arizona Cardinals’ Blaine Gabbert (minus-0.1), the 49ers and New England Patriots’ Brian Hoyer (minus-0.3) and the Miami Dolphins’ Jay Cutler (minus-0.5).

The Rams had 214 third-down attempts last year — roughly in the middle of the pack. But with McVay’s added firepower, namely Brandin Cooks, along with a full year’s maturation of third-down weapon Cooper Kupp, one should expect the number of third-down attempts to drop in 2018.

Hence limiting the number of tries from Goff here.

Then there’s the red zone, which is equally important. Goff posted a 106.8 passer rating within opponents’ 25-yard lines, tossing 23 touchdowns against zero interceptions. That’s a key stat, especially considering the lack of open space with which quarterbacks have to work. While his completion percentage was the lowest here out of any portion elsewhere on the field (58.11), at least Goff hasn’t demonstrated a tendency to turn the ball over in these crucial scoring situations.

Keep in mind, these numbers are at a relatively base level for Goff and his offensive weapons within McVay’s system. There’s a year’s experience there now, which prompts the idea the quarterback should only improve upon last year’s numbers, which were pretty good to begin with.

As a result, don’t be shocked if Goff rides that momentum to yet another Pro Bowl nod when 2018 is said and done.

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