What if the LA Rams traded Jared Goff for this quarterback

What if Jared Goff was traded away for this NFL quarterback, let’s compare their 2019 numbers

The great thing about pro football is wondering “what if”, especially in the case of the LA Rams not using running back Todd Gurley more in the Super Bowl. Would the Rams have won the game? Who knows?

QB Jared Goff is the face of the Rams franchise. He is the engineer that drives the Rams offense to the fans. He is highly productive but what if the Rams traded him to another team?

In 2019, Goff completed 62.9% of his passes for 4,638 yards with 22 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He finished third in passing yards behind Jameis Winston and Dak Prescott. Let’s take a closer look at his analytical passing chart, via nextgenstats.nfl.com.

According to his chart, Goff excels when throwing into the middle zones on the field. In fact, he scores very high in the middle zone between 10 and 20 yards downfield. Most of all, he is not very good in the vertical passing game past 20 yards downfield.

What if the LA Rams traded Jared Goff for Derek Carr?

Derek Carr was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Like Goff, Carr was drafted by the previous general manager. Carr has played for 4 different head coaches.

Last season, Carr completed 70.4 % of his passes for 4,054 yards with 21 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Carr had 584 less passing yards than Goff but, topped him in the other categories. Carr has a very impressive analytical passing chart.

Carr is much better than the NFL average in seven of the twelve passing zones. He was a little better than the league average in the remaining five zones. Carr had a passer rating of 100.8 and Goff had a passer rating of 86.5.

Carr has a more salary cap-friendly contract. Carr’s salary cap hit is $21.5 million while Goff’s cap hit is $36,042,682. Carr’s cap hit is just 9.77% of the Raiders salary cap.  Goff is 17.68% of the Rams salary cap.

If the Rams traded Goff for Carr, they would get a more accurate passer. Additionally, they would get a deep vertical passing game. But most of all, they would have a more friendly salary cap situation.