Los Angeles Rams: Jared Goff Shouldn’t Be Written Off Just Yet

Los Angeles Rams rookie quarterback Jared Goff has certainly struggled this season, but it’s way too early to write off the 2016 No. 1-overall pick.

In today’s world, you want a return on an investment right away. That’s just the nature of the beast, especially in the NFL. However, realistically speaking, some investments take time before they payoff. You aren’t always going to make your money back right away. Or in the Los Angeles Rams’ case, you aren’t always going to see a player flourish in his rookie season.

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The 2016 NFL Draft had plenty of storylines, from the top offensive lineman having a video of him smoking marijuana posted minutes before the draft kicked off to the Cleveland Browns trading their No. 2 pick away instead of getting their franchise quarterback.

You can look at the NFL Draft any way you want to, but the biggest storyline will always be the No. 1 overall pick. This year, the Tennessee Titans held the No. 1 overall pick, but ultimately decided to trade it to the Rams, who officially moved to Los Angeles and were looking to make a splash.

Los Angeles gave up a first-round pick, two second-round picks, and a third-round pick in 2016 along with a first- and a third-round pick in 2017. In return they got the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and a fourth- and a sixth-round pick in the same draft. Long story short, the Rams gave up everything they did to acquire one player, their new franchise quarterback and former Cal quarterback, Jared Goff.

When you are taken with the No. 1 overall pick, the casual fan believes you better be a star right away. The pressure is immense for the player selected and you need to make sure they can handle it because it’s very easy to crumble behind that mental burden. Many people expect the No. 1 overall pick to start right away and be a bright spot on the team, but that wasn’t the case for the Rams because of Case. That Case was their starting quarterback, Case Keenum.

Undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft, Keenum was signed by the Houston Texans where he started 10 games, winning just two before he was traded to the then St. Louis Rams for a 2016 seventh-round pick. In 2015, Keenum started five games for the Rams, winning three games and putting his career record as a starter to 5-10. He was nothing special and it was obvious the Rams needed a legitimate starting quarterback to lead their franchise, especially after they officially moved to LA.

The Rams made the move to get their quarterback and it seemed that Goff would be their guy going forward, until he wasn’t. Head coach Jeff Fisher (who was fired after Week 14), decided that Goff wasn’t ready to handle the NFL defenses just yet and announced that Keenum would remain the starter in 2016. It led to some outrage, obviously, because people want to see their team’s first-round pick compete. To make it worse, Keenum stunk it up and was arguably the worst starter in the NFL, but Fisher remained strong on his stance that Goff would play when he was ready.

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It led to a ton of questions, but the biggest were “Did the Rams make a mistake trading up to take Goff?” “How wasn’t he able to play better than Keenum?” “Is Goff really this bad?” Some people were already writing him off before he even took an NFL regular season snap.

Finally, after Keenum had a span of three games where he only threw two touchdowns while also throwing five interceptions, the Rams named Goff the starter of their 4-5 football team. Expectations behind the No. 1 overall pick are always high. However, he came up flat in his first NFL start (134 yards and 0 touchdowns) and did not look good.

In his second start, Goff showed flashes of brilliance (three touchdowns) matched with flashes of mediocre play, but it was enough for some to see that Goff has the potential to be something in Los Angeles. But, in his third start, Goff took a step back and played another poor game. He threw two interceptions (so the box score said), but they both weren’t his fault. Goff responded the next week with the worst game of his young career, throwing a bad interception for a touchdown and getting his fumble returned for a touchdown too. He stood at 0-4 already and had many scratching their heads.

Then, this week (Week 15) with all the eyes on him for Thursday Night Football, or “poopfest” as Richard Sherman says, Goff put on his own “poopfest” against the Seattle Seahawks. On the Rams’ second drive of the game, Goff had a chance for an easy deep-ball touchdown. The only problem was that he under threw the pass and his wide receiver dropped an easy catch. Regardless of the under throw, the pass should have been caught. But some would argue if Goff put the ball on the money, we would be talking about a beautiful touchdown pass instead of an ugly drop.

Luckily, the incompletion did not end the drive and the Rams continued to move down the field. They got to the 7-yard line and were in a critical third and one situation. Goff took the shotgun snap, was protected well, and had a wide open receiver in the end zone. The only problem was Goff missed his layup touchdown throw, badly. The Rams went for it on fourth down, failed, and walked away from a drive that they could have scored seven points, twice, with zero.

Goff’s poor start carried on throughout the game with some solid throws sprinkled in to a handful of inaccurate incompletions. He was unable to finish the game, though, as he tried to run down the left sideline and found out the hard way that he should have ran out of bounds.

Sherman gave new meaning to the word “poopfest” and welcomed the rookie quarterback to the NFL the hard way. Leaving with a concussion put the cherry on top of Goff’s terrible game and gave more fire power to the people writing him off just five starts into his NFL career.

Has he played bad so far in his NFL career? Without a doubt. Has he failed to meet expectations after being drafted No. 1 overall? That depends on how realistic your expectations are. If you are one of the people who believe he should be a star, that is your opinion, but I love to remind those people about future first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning’s impressive rookie season. The one where he only completed 56.7 percent of his passes, threw a league leading 28 interceptions, and led his team to a 3-13 record.

Through five games, Goff has failed to win a game (0-5) and has completed 88 of his 161 passes (54.7 percent) for 879 yards, four touchdowns, and five interceptions. Yes, his stats are terrible, but don’t let a box score determine your evolution on a player. Be smarter. Dig deeper.

He hasn’t had much help this season, whether it’s from his terrible offensive line or his minimal weapons in the passing game. Some call them excuses, but for a rookie quarterback, they are just facts.

If Goff was on the Dallas Cowboys and playing this bad, then you could write him off, however he’s on the Rams. The team that has only won 46 games since 2007 while losing 111. Yeah, that team. The same team that has finished third or worse in their own division the last six seasons and hasn’t won the NFC West since 2003.

With all that known, some people will still blame Goff just because he was taken with the No. 1 overall pick this year. Listen, it makes sense. You take a guy that early, he needs to change your franchise as soon as possible. But if he doesn’t change it the first year, do not give up on him. Goff has a ton of talent and the Rams, as a whole, do not.

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Don’t just look at Manning’s poor rookie season to help understand that you can’t pass judgment after one season. Remember, Robert Griffin III won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2012 and he just went 12-of-28 for 104 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception in Week 14 of the 2016 NFL season.

Goff has only started five games in his NFL career, so give him more time to develop and show what he brings to the table. More importantly, give the Rams time to build around him before writing off a talented kid who has only attempted 161 passes. You could be writing off an investment that is only a year away from paying off.