Los Angeles Rams: Jared Goff should be motivated by NFL Total Access ranking

During a recent segment on NFL Total Access, Jared Goff was ranked the second best quarterback in the NFC West, behind Russell Wilson.

Around this time last year, one of the biggest questions surrounding the Los Angeles Rams was whether Jared Goff was the right answer for the team after a horrendous rookie campaign during the 2016 season in which he failed to win a single game.

However, the harsh criticism Goff received as a rookie was sort of unfair in a way since the Rams didn’t exactly do the best job of providing him with a reliable offensive line and receiving corps to work with.

In other words, most quarterbacks most likely would have gone 0-7 in Goff’s situation, meaning it was ridiculous to see some fans give up on him the way they did. But when seeing how quickly Goff benefitted from playing in Sean McVay‘s offense last season, it’s safe to say the Rams made the right choice trading up for Goff in 2016.

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Even better, Goff’s second season consisting of 3,804 passing yards to go along with 28 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions was good enough for the Rams quarterback to earn a trip to his first Pro Bowl.

Heading into 2018, there’s every reason to believe Goff is capable of putting together another Pro Bowl year, but when it comes to earning recognition as the top quarterback in the NFC West, it looks like the former California star has some work to do.

This week, some of the folks over at NFL Total Access decided to provide their rankings of the four starting quarterbacks in the NFC West, and in what shouldn’t come as a surprise to any football fan, seeing Goff at No. 2 behind Russell Wilson seems fitting.

No matter how much of a case Rams fans want to make about Goff deserving to be in the top spot over Wilson, the youngster needs a few more years of experience before that conversation can even happen. Between last year being the first time in the Wilson era the Seahawks failed to earn a trip to the playoffs along with him having a Super Bowl ring, Goff just can’t compete with this at the moment.

Only time will tell when it comes to whether Goff has what it takes to overtake Wilson as the top quarterback in the division, but also let’s not forget that Jimmy Garoppolo (No. 3) should provide some interesting competition as well.

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Either way, at least Los Angeles has plenty of reasons to be thrilled over finally finding a franchise quarterback in Goff after since over the years, they would tend to be on the bottom of a ranking like this. And who knows, maybe finishing at No. 2 this time around on NFL Total Access will provide Goff with a little extra motivation for next year to earn that top spot.