Rams are a better team today if they don’t draft Jared Goff

Are the Los Angeles Rams a better football team today if they don’t draft Jared Goff in 2016? From where I sit, they probably are.

Los Angeles Rams fans can only think back and muse how fate is such a fickle player. Here they sit, one season removed from the No.1 overall selection, and they are still looking at the prospects of another year of losing football.

Did it have to be this way?

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I’d proffer that the Rams might reasonably be in a better place today, more competitive, and perhaps in a position to make the playoffs in 2017, if they draft 15th overall in last years draft, and pass on trading up for the incumbent Jared Goff.

Leading up the 2016 NFL Draft, few disputed that the Rams, just having winged their way west from St. Louis, were in need of a quarterback. Sam Bradford went bust and was in another city, Nick Foles was quickly fizzling out, and Case Keenum, a backup at best, had ascended to the top spot on the LA depth chart.

Yes, they needed a quarterback, and some might say a splashy introduction to Los Angeles.

Both have proven to be elusive to date.

But an argument can be made that if Goff is not on the Rams roster today, the Rams are better heading into the 2017 season.

The biggest reason being that Goff has hamstrung the organization with less picks to rebuild and rebrand in LA, and few options at the quarterback positions itself.

Just look at the fact that Los Angeles won’t likely entertain a veteran QB on the roster for fear it may stunt the needed growth of Goff. Not to mention the fact that they are now obligated, via the investment they’ve made in him, to play out a scenario where he gets every chance to see if he can actually be the NFL quality starter they desperately need.

Don’t forget that at last years NFL meetings pre-draft, the Rams were “all in” on Keenum, and Foles was still on the roster. Maybe LA gets their No. 1 receiver at the 15th pick, or perhaps they take Paxton Lynch out of Memphis. After all, a 15th round pick sitting and learning is far more acceptable that the top overall pick doing the same.

That’s just basic math, people.

If 2016 is allowed to play out sans a questionable trade for a questionable quarterback, better options are likely available for Los Angeles in 2017.

At the very least, the possibilities present a scenario where this season is less a reset, and more of an ability to compete at a higher level, than what the organization is currently looking at.

I’m just sayin’.

Los Angeles is faced with a player that has to either absolutely work to justify such a decision, or be bad enough that McVay can reasonably jettison the young quarterback for a better option next year.

Hardly the fault of Goff or McVay.

Regardless of how much the 2016 draft potentially sets back the Rams, the original sin will always be a questionable trade that has yet to pay any dividends for a team mired in a decade of losing.

And it doesn’t look to get much better this season.

So, I ask you, wouldn’t Los Angeles be better today WITHOUT Jared Goff on the roster?

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But before you answer, tell me how many more wins his presence at quarterback might yield this season, knowing that spinning his progress into WHAT MIGHT BE in 2018 isn’t the primary problem in the first place.

The Rams just can’t keep resetting year, after year, after year.

That’s been the original sin all along.