Extra Points: Goff, Rams, AAF, Ryan, CFL

It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride for Jared Goff these past few years. The first overall pick back in 2016, a lot of people wrote him off as a bust after his disastrous rookie season. But Goff came alive once he was paired with head coach Sean McVay, and has now made the Pro Bowl each of the last two seasons. This past season, the Rams made it all the way to the Super Bowl but Goff had a terrible performance in the big game. There’s been a lot of debate the past couple of years about how much of Goff’s improvement was due to his own natural development versus how much of it was due to McVay’s coaching.

As such, there have been some rumors that the Rams aren’t completely sold on Goff as the longterm answer. McVay openly stating last month that the team wasn’t in any rush to extend Goff did nothing to quiet those rumors. But during a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen show, McVay pushed back on that perception, saying Goff doesn’t have to prove he’s “the man.” “I think he’s already the man. I think he’s had a lot of moments,” McVay said. “His teammates believe in him, his coaches believe in him. I think it’s just continuing to do what you do at a higher level. It’s ‘can I continue to make great decisions? Can I continue to make throws with accuracy and anticipation?’ I think the thing that was great about him really from the first year we were together to last year is the ownership. We talk about the quarterback being an extension of the coaching staff and I think he did that.”

McVay made it clear he’s happy with Goff’s progression, and tried to extinguish any talk about the team potentially moving on down the line. It would be a major surprise if anything other than Goff getting a huge extension happens.

Here’s more from around the football universe:

• We have some more fallout from the demise of the AAF. Daryl Johnston, the former Cowboys fullback and commentator, was the general manage of the San Antonio Commanders, and now he’s dishing on what went down. Johnston said during a recent appearance on ESPN Radio that he and others were “misled” by the league’s founders about the financial stability of the startup, per Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com. “There were several people who took jobs with the Alliance because they were told they had two years, and they’re in a very difficult spot now at this stage. This was something that caught me totally by surprise,” Johnston said. Johnston also said there are multiple San Antonio businesses who have so far been stiffed on payments they’re owed, and that Bill Polian called him out of the blue on the day the league ceased operations and told him to immediately shutdown practice.
• As much as Johnston might want to put the chapter behind him, it might not be that simple for him. In a follow-up to that piece, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com writes that Johnston could now become a “key witness” in the multiple lawsuits that have been filed against the league. Florio writes that Johnston’s comments seemed to confirm the crux of the lawsuits, that the league’s founders lied about their financial standing. This surely isn’t the last we’ve heard of this process.
• Free agent punter Jon Ryan might be getting back into professional football, but not in the NFL. The Seahawks’ punter for ten years from 2008-2017, Ryan had a workout with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL this past week, according to Rod Pedersen, the team’s announcer (Twitter link). Ryan was released by Seattle last August and signed with the Bills, but couldn’t crack Buffalo’s roster.