Should Rams have let Jared Goff play more against Cowboys in preseason opener?
By Dan Parzych
For the most part, Jared Goff looked well for the Los Angeles Rams during their first preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Entering the offseason, the Los Angeles Rams set a goal as a team to make sure they made the necessary adjustments to provide quarterback Jared Goff with better weapons to work with heading into his sophomore season. During Saturday’s first preseason game for the Rams against the Dallas Cowboys, all eyes were on Goff at the beginning, and for the most part, the former California star did pretty well.
In limited action, Goff only completed three of four passes for 34 yards from two drives, but the argument can be made that Sean McVay should have considered keeping his quarterback out a little longer. Obviously, it’s the preseason, and a majority of teams around the league tend to keep their star players in limited action, but not all of those players are in the same position as Goff.
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Whether he likes it or not, Goff’s sophomore year with Los Angeles is a major test for the quarterback to see how good of a fit he is under McVay’s offense because if the struggles from a year ago continue, the Rams could consider other options at quarterback. All of this may sound crazy when considering Los Angeles surrendered a first-round pick from this year’s NFL Draft just to land Goff in 2016, but look at all of the rumors already swirling about the possibility of McVay going after Kirk Cousins if he becomes a free agent next year.
By only playing two series, it was tough to get a full read on Goff’s development progress under McVay’s system since his limited action against the Cowboys simply wasn’t enough to make a full judgement, and allowing him to play a few more series wouldn’t have been the end of the world. While Goff has received plenty of praise throughout the last few months for how quickly he’s picked up McVay’s offense, everybody knows none of this matters until he proves to be a good fit when it matters the most in meaningful games.
Next: 5 takeaways from Rams win over Cowboys
Give Los Angeles credit for providing Goff with a major upgrade in the receiver department when looking at some of the key additions, including the recent trade for Sammy Watkins, that will hopefully bring out the best in the Rams quarterback in 2017. At least for McVay and Los Angeles fans, the team still has a few more weeks of preseason action to see how Goff truly looks in this new offense before the real action starts in Week 1 against the Indianapolis Colts.