Most NFL experts are ready to give Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff a pass for his dismal 2016 season.
New Rams head coach Sean McVay and his staff should be quite familiar with Goff’s work on video by now. He should have a sense of whether Goff’s stats—54.6 completion percentage, 1,089 passing yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions, 26 sacks, a quarterback rating of 22.2 and a 0-7 record—were the result solely of a deplorable Rams offense or whether he played significant factor in its inept play.
So he may know the answer to the following questions better than anyone: Should Los Angeles dangle Goff to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for Brock Osweiler and the No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 draft?
According to NFL.com‘s final quarterback rankings of 2016 released in January, Goff finished 32nd among the 32 starting NFL quarterbacks by the end of the seasons.
Worse still, footballprespective.com compared Goff’s rookie year to that of one of the all-time QB busts, Ryan Leaf, ruling that Goff’s rookie year was slightly worse than Leaf’s. In fact, Goff had the least efficient rookie season since the NFL-AFL merger.
The Browns are looking to unload Osweiler’s unwieldy contract ($16 million in 2017), and the Rams could use cornerback Trumaine Johnson as part of the deal to make the numbers work. Los Angeles needs multiple assets and likely will not compete for a playoff spot next year. If they can bolster other areas of their team and then find another “franchise quarterback,” they could put themselves on a fast track toward playoff contention.
And the Rams could get rid of Osweiler after 2017 without any cost.
The scenario may be a little extreme, but the Rams need to look at all options.
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