Did Los Angeles Rams Make Mistake Playing Jared Goff in 2016?

<![CDATA[Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay is champing at the bit until April arrives and he can start working with quarterback Jared Goff.

According to theRams.com, McVay has a detailed plan for incorporating Goff into his new offense when the two get together for OTAs.

But how much “unlearning” does Goff have to do before he’s able to latch on to McVay’s scheme? Goff has worked with quarterbacks guru Tom House in the offseason to give him a jump-start in 2017.

“One of the things you appreciate about Jared is he’s going about it in a way that he is working with Tom House and those guys, who have a lot of respect in terms of fundamentals, the technique of the position,” McVay told theRams.com last week. “Once we get Jared in the building it’s going to be about teaching him our system, seeing how he processes things, how he’s able to handle the above-the-neck information and then be able to translate it to the grass once we get out on the field in Phase 2 in the OTAs.”

That means new terminology for Goff, who was thrown into the Rams fire at midseason in 2016. Last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick assumed the starting reins in Game 10. Theoretically, Los Angeles still was in the chase for a playoff berth with a 4-5 record but had lost four of its last five games.

With Goff as starter, the Rams went 0-7 and lost by an average of 19.3 points per game. He completed just 54.6 percent of his passes for 1,089 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions.

The adage goes there’s no substitute for experience, but does that include the negative kind to which Goff was subjected? Playing behind a porous offensive line and with insufficient weapons, Goff likely picked up some bad habits—out of survival mode—that he will have to overcome moving forward. Los Angeles was worst in the league in total offense (262.7 yards per game) and scoring offense (14.0 points per game).

Did the bad experiences nullify the playing time Goff received?

Had he sat all last season, it would’ve made no difference in the outcome for the Rams.

The questions are: Is Goff better off having played last year, even if it came with poor results? And can McVay and the Rams staff turn him around without having to delve into a fragile psyche?

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