Could Coach Mike Martz help besieged LA Rams QB Jared Goff?

All-day to throw

Of course, if the pass protection is up to the challenge, a quarterback can make his progression reads over enough time. How many times in the course of a game do you hear “he has all day to throw” and the quarterback fails to do so? More often than not, whether it’s the team you cheer for or against, the all-day-to-throw is a harbinger to a big pass play.

The time for a quarterback to find his receiver is set by many coaches at three seconds. Offensive drills set the quarterback to pass within three seconds in training camp. It’s a deadline that is hard-stamped into the internal clock of each and every NFL quarterback.  When the alarm goes off, the quarterback should be throwing the football.

Extending the play

Looking downfield while evading defensive pressure is an art form. The sixth sense of a quarterback to feel defensive pressure coming from a blind spot, step out of the way effortlessly and make the throw downfield is a beautiful sight to see when it’s your team’s quarterback. Other quarterbacks pull the ball down and scramble for a safer spot to reset.  Still, others pull down the back and weave back and forth away from defenders. In each offense, the quarterback has options on how to extend the play to give receivers time to run their routes.

But there is very little a quarterback can do when the defenders pour through on either side of the center. Those A-gap blitzes disrupt pass and run plays because the defender pours through too quickly for the quarterback to react.  The Rams offensive line struggled mightily in 2019 with A-gap blitzes. Whenever a quarterback faces those week-in and week-out, he soon devolves into a “chuck and duck” passer. So in light of 2019, I assert that much of the struggle to make successful progression reads was more upon the offensive line play than bad mechanics of the quarterback.