How the Los Angeles Rams Can Put a Little More ‘Air’ In Their Offense with Jared Goff
The Los Angeles Rams drafted quarterback Jared Goff to be the face of their franchise for the next 10-15 years. Goff has the physical tools to be an elite quarterback.
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He’s smart, accurate, athletic and throws a great ball. If the Rams are going to maximize Goff’s skill set, then head coach Jeff Fisher needs to betray his core principals offensively. The Rams cannot be a run first offense. They need to open things up and put the ball in Goff’s hands more.
One of the ways a team can help make a rookie quarterback comfortable is to employ some of the concepts that the quarterback used in college. In the case of Goff, he played for spread guru Tony Franklin at Cal. Franklin ran the Air Raid spread offense which was popularized by Hal Mumme at Kentucky in the late nineties and Mike Leach at Texas Tech in the 2000’s. The Air Raid is a no huddle offense built around simple concepts in the passing game.
Franklin wants his quarterbacks to make quick decisions get the ball out quickly in the passing game. Franklin uses a variety of different pass game concepts and uses to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quickly. Here are five simple Air Raid passing concepts the Rams could implement in their offense to help make Goff’s transition to the NFL easier.
Diagram 1: Snag
Snag is a common pass concept in the NFL however spread team utilize it more. It is a simple read for the quarterback. He identifies the flat defender and works off of him. The concept is designed to put the flat defender in duress. It’s a low, high read for the quarterback. His first read is the Z on the spot route. If the flat defender jumps the spot route, the quarterback resets and throws the swing route to the running. The quarterback can go vertical to the corner if its man to man coverage.
Diagram 2: Swing Cut
Swing cut is a simple concept designed to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quickly. Again, the quarterback would read the flat defender. In this case, the flat defender is the squat Cover 2 corner on the left. If he funnels the in-cut inside and comes off of it, the quarterback throws the in-cut. If the corner trails inside, the quarterback throws the swing. The seam is built in to create clearance. It’s a half field read for the quarterback. NFL don’t like to limit a quarterback’s options in the passing game but again, this is a good way to simply the game for him early on.
Diagram 3: Levels
Levels is a popular NFL concept that has its roots in the West Coast offense. When Mumme and Leach got to Kentucky in the late nineties, they initially put in the West Coast offense before developing the Air Raid. Levels is a great zone beater and its easy for the quarterback to process. In this instance, the Rams would be in an empty formation.
Goff would have a front side read here. He identifies how many defenders are defending trips and whether its zone or man. Once he determines that it is zone, he reads the flat defender outside and the hook, curl defender inside. Depending on their drop, he throws opposite to the open receiver. The quarterback and receivers have to be on the same page on this play. The receivers need to read zone coverage and sit in the appropriate open area.
Diagram 4: Boot/Naked Action
Goff is athletic and has a quick release. One of the ways the Rams can take advantage of that is to move the pocket for him and get the ball out of his hands quickly. Here, Goff fakes an inside zone play to the right, pulls the ball and boots left. His first read is the W underneath. If the W is covered, he sets his feet and throws the backside drag to the Y. Calling a play like this early on in a game gets a quarterback into rhythm.
Diagram 5: RPO’s (Run Pass Options)
RPO’s are all the rage in college football today. You are starting to see more and more teams use RPO’s in the NFL as well. Spread quarterbacks like Goff are well versed in utilizing RPO’s and making decisions at the line of scrimmage. On this play, the quarterback makes a box count. If he gets a five man box, he runs the ball.
If the overhang nickel back is splitting the difference with the Z receiver and showing pressure, the quarterback pulls the ball and throws the bubble screen to the Z receiver. If the quarterback gets a six man box and he sees soft coverage on the outside, he has a built hitch he can throw on the back side. Running RPO’s early on with Goff will help him get more comfortable.
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The Rams have a potential franchise quarterback in Goff. Like all rookies, he needs to get off to a good start in his career in order to develop. The Rams could make his life a little easier by blending in concepts like this when they install their offense. The more Goff is early on, the better he’ll be.