The Rams just lost their defensive coordinator to the Chargers, and more big changes could be on the way. Los Angeles just wrapped up what was by all accounts a successful season, winning a playoff game and advancing to the divisional round after failing to make the postseason the year before. But if they want to make it back to their old heights of the 2018 Super Bowl run, they’ll need much better production in the passing game. 
Sean McVay seems to understand that, and he’s now raised plenty of eyebrows in his last two press conferences by declining to commit to Jared Goff. In his post-game press conference immediately after the Rams’ loss to the Packers, McVay was asked whether Goff is his quarterback and he replied “yeah, he’s the quarterback right now.” As we’ve often seen, “right now” can be something of a kiss of death in coach-speak.
In his end of year media availability on Sunday, McVay muddied the waters even further. “I’m evaluating everything we do, and that includes the QB position,” McVay said, adding “I’m not ready to make any sort of statements with regards to ANY starting position,” per Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Los Angeles had the league’s top total defense this season, the weapons are good enough, the offensive line is solid, and the coaching is by all accounts great. As such, it’s fair to assume that the only way to increase their ceiling is for Goff to improve, because it’ll be hard for the defense to play any better in 2021. The former first overall pick regressed this season, ranking toward the top of the league in interceptions despite being toward the bottom in average depth of target.
It sounds like McVay is far from happy with his current depth chart, but his options are limited. Goff is under contract through the 2024 season thanks to the big extension he signed in September of 2019 that is only really starting to kick in now. There’s no realistic way to cut him before next season with the dead cap implications.
No team is likely to take on his contract in a trade, which would seem to indicate the only way for McVay to replace him would be to add some competition to the roster. It would be really hard to fit another big contract next to Goff’s, which would mean that competition would likely need to come in the form of a cheaper veteran or a player on a rookie deal.
It’s going to be a very interesting offseason in Los Angeles. Perhaps GM Les Snead, noted for his aggressiveness in recent years, has one more trick up his sleeve.
Are Rams tight on cash? Would they be able to trade for Watson?
It says in the article that it’d be tough to squeeze in another big contract and that it would have to be either a rookie deal or a cheaper veteran so without looking up the Rams cap situation, I read that as they would not be able to bring in Watson
Rams aren’t trading for Watson.
Interesting thought: what would the odds of a Goff (plus some compensation most likely) for Wentz swap be?
If they Texans take back Goff in a deal then yes.
Stafford for Goff could be lining up.
Why would the Lions do that? Stafford is better.
Cause Lions are under going a rebuild and Goff is younger and he’s also done alright so far as a young QB
Yea not a Lions fan but why in Sam Hill does that make sense? Goff is a bottom 10 QB and overpaid
duh it’s Shaun Hill
Bc when teams rebuild they dont wont a qb with a big contract…goff is not going to detroit
And older. Change of scenery for both may be a win-win. Lions could rebuild around Goff if they feel his ceiling could be higher. After all, he’s made it further than Stafford ever did – the SB.
Curious if the Broncos, Patriots, or another QB-needy team would trade for Goff.
I mean… 77% completion way better than a game manager with a jacked up hand. Defense got dominated.
Agree
You’’re just a meanie.
So its so surprising that a coach would not be fully committed to a QB at this point in the season. Is Sean McVay crazy? Who else is not committed?
Chicago Matt Nagy Mitch Trubisky
Carolina Matt Rhule Teddy Bridgewater
Houston ??? Deshaun Watson
Indy Frank Reich Philip Rivers
Las Vegas Jon Gruden Derek Carr
Miami Brian Flores Tua Tagovailo
New Engl Bill Belichick Cam Newton
New Orl Sean Payton Drew Brees
NY Jets Robert Saleh Sam Darnold
Philly ??? Carson Wentz
Pitt Mike Tomlin Ben Roethlisberger
WFT Ron Rivera Alex Smith ?
Sean McVay is only average and is not special with his QB quandary …..
Watson is the one who wants out, Rivers is retiring, Newton was never the stopgap to begin with, Saleh already mentioned that Darnold has his confidence, Rothlisberger is t a question unless he retires.
The issue with this particular situation is we have a QB getting paid serious coin and not pulling his weight whereas the rest of the team has. They’ve seen the potential, now need the consistency. It’s a motivation play.
Would be interesting though to see a swap between the Eagles and Rams, though. Wentz for Goff?
The Eagles did well trading for Ron Jaworski so they could be tempted again.
Only 5 of those are a commitment issue
Rams need to do something. They don’t have any deep threats at wideout, so Goff is always throwing into congested areas. McVay didn’t have the team ready to play the Jets, so he needs to check himself too. He doesn’t like the roster depth? Goff is the last guy they drafted in the first round, quit trading away picks.
Rather have Ramsey than the picks.
I mean, Ramsey is realistically better than anyone you could have selected with low first round picks.
I wouldn’t blame McVay for Goff’s shortcomings. He schemes open receivers and opened up passing lanes by establishing the run with Cam Akers. His impact was notable in their win over Seattle, as he clearly out-coached Carroll. Although the offensive line is a bit of a liability, the receiving corps is way better than you’re making it out to be: Kupp, Woods, Reynolds, Jefferson, Higbee, and Everett is plenty of talent.
I understand the Rams did not necessarily lose to the Packers because of Goff, but I would attribute the defensive failure to not having Aaron Donald at 100%. For a defense predicated on his efforts, that was a huge blow.
Goff, while not horrible, was way too inconsistent. They don’t necessarily need to move on, but it’s fair to question his long-term future with the team
Goff has very little mobility and seemingly very limited awareness.
Goff is limited, but that’s partially McVay’s fault. McVay has run his system with the intention of protecting Goff for the last few years, and has never relied on Goff to make significant decisions at the line. Now everybody is complaining that Goff can’t own an offense. Well, the Rams never made him do it, so it should not be surprising.
Goff is above average, but not much more than that. That said, he’s not the worst QB in the league, and we do have to be kidding ourselves if we think that he is not partially being judged for two games he just played with a broken thumb.
The fact right now is that the Rams do need a better running game, in addition to the passing game. The Rams, as currently built, don’t function at ideal capacity without a truly great running attack-not merely a good one by most conventional standards. Akers, while good, only came on later in the season and definitely is not on the level that Gurley was in terms of truly striking fear into a defense if they did not have eight men in the box. Part of that is a weaker run blocking line. The Rams developed their offense around a megastar running back, and their playbook is based on the defense fearing it. That’s how Goff plays because that’s how they built him.
McVay runs only a handful of formations, most of which are predicated on fooling the defense with a look before the snap so that the quarterback does not have to think. He runs a repetitive offense, about as well as a repetitive offense can be run. If he wants more a more active quarterback to upgrade the passing game, he’s going to have change some of the fundamentals of the playbook and diversify what he’s been doing these last few seasons.
I’m judging on many more than two games and not kidding myself at all. My opinions on Goff go back years. Just my opinions, but I’ve posted them for years, not just two games.
I mean the Rams actually have a really good team and I like McVay as a coach. I think they are a team that is quietly underachieving a little.
They have Aaron Donald who is basically like having two players on the field he’s just a beast, you can’t stop him. They also have Jalen Ramsey who is one of the league best corners if not the best right now. That defence does well but that game they just out done but the greatness of Aaron Rodgers and it doesn’t help Donald was very injured.
It’s the offence that lets them done. Cam Akers looks like a very impressive RB, Kupp and Woods have always been two of the top 10-15 receivers especially Kupp. I’m not sure if it’s the QBs fault, the o line, maybe they need an upgrade at TE, maybe another deep threat WR. But it’s come up short a couple times now.
Can’t really change the QB considering the deal they just gave him and even adding a experienced vet doesn’t send the best message for a young QB. It’s a tough situation.
I’d possibly try grab a TE in FA and draft a deep threat WR, then the QB has next to no complaints. So I’d have give it another year. Goff is still young and the team improved from last season. Next year the goal should be divisional final or otherwise new QB incoming
They should try to trade him, just not sure anyone will take him unless someone thinks he can or will improve. Maybe they add a pick in there? I’m think they gotta draft a QB if they don’t move him. Wouldn’t say hes terrible but he clearly got worse this season and is the weak link right now on that team. The way they handed out contracts it’s no wonder they are tight on cap, have a feeling this is gonna bite them and they’ll be stuck with him while a rookie ends up starting at some point
Sign Jameis Winston to compete. Easy
Yep because any QB that holds the record for most interceptions in a year must be good. Even the Saints would rather start a glorified TE over Winston at Qb.
Why not give it a try? There’s no downside…it’s not like he’s going to cost them anything
to be fair, Favre threw a lot if INTs as well. its more about ratio then anything else.
A lot of teams would love a playoff and Super Bowl QB who is young.Watson 4 Goff and Woods.
Houston wouldn’t want Goff. Why would anybody?
All these big QB contracts for average QB’s are back firing (shocking).
At least the Niners were smart enough to write language in Jimmy’s contract that let’s them drop him this off season with minimal dead money.
Of all the teams with QB contract trouble, the Niners are the ones most dependent on their respective QB.
For Goff to be successful the Rams’ offensive line must be better than “solid.” Other teams know that if they blitz and pressure Goff he gets rattled and seldom scrambles to make plays. Improving the offensive line will result in a better QB performance, as well as running game.
you can have Wentz for him
The Rams need a running mobile QB, It could be Wolford or making a trade for someone else! Goff must go, he’s had his chance and needs to move on!
What, if any cap hit would there be if they actually managed to find a trade partner? A trade partner that had something of interest/ value to send back, and wouldn’t have to eat a pile of dead cap money in the process.
Depends on money coming back to Rams in other contracts
What a bunch of media-generated nonsense. The cap hit/dead cap money on Goff makes him unmovable for the next two years.
Goff is not the problem.
They have no one to extend the defense. They did not do very well 2020 draft. They stall w poor play calling at critical times.
And McVey is a weasel for implying he gets deficient QB play from Goff.guy is 42-20 with aSB appearance in last 4years. That’s damn good record.
The Patriots may want to sign Goff, or someone like RG3, or Deshaun Watson