LA Rams QB Jared Goff won’t stand for blitzes any longer

LA Rams QB Jared Goff won’t stand for blitzes any longer. He’s learning how to shed defenders with better footwork, and how to throw while off-balance

Think back to the LA Rams‘ worst games in 2019. (in announcer’s voice) Quarterback Jared Goff surveys the field. Cooks to his right, Woods to the left, Cupp in the slot. Goff back to pass and whoa! I don’t know how he managed to get that one away while in the grasp of a blitzing defender.  Oh, the memories of what might have been. Does it sound familiar?

If it doesn’t, it should. While Jared Goff was one of the least sacked quarterbacks, he was one of the most pressured. Not just pressured after a three-second drop-back and failing to find the open receiver. Pressured as in by the time he was setting his feet, he was being dropped onto his arse by a defender.

Under pressure!

The kind of pressure that doesn’t let you scan to your secondary receivers. The kind of pressure that forces you to throw the ball before you are ready – and sometimes didn’t see that defensive back in position to make a play. The kind of pressure where everyone looks at your stats at the end of the season and thinks “Huh? I wonder why he’s playing like crap now?”. Yes, that kind of pressure.

Can he blame the offensive line? Sure! Why not! Blaming somebody so as not to feel responsible – either for the problem or for its correction. And therein lies the problem. The Rams invested the majority of their limited salary cap into the quarterback position. The offensive line is what it is. The Rams not only have underpaid the offensive line as a unit, but the team has already spent the necessary salary cap dollars elsewhere.  That means the Rams will not be signing marquis offensive linemen anytime soo.

Moves like Jagger

So there has to be a better way, right? After all,  NFL greats like Jim Everett, Roman Gabriel, Dan Marino, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and even Tom Brady have proven time and time again to be very difficult to sack. They didn’t often scramble, but rather moved around in the pocket and reset, getting the ball out after extending the play. Quarterbacks who want to succeed in the NFL must learn how to side-step a pass rush.

Goff is no danger to run with the football. But he can do a much better job of reading defensive pressure, making defenders miss with better footwork, and learning to throw off the wrong foot when the play requires it. While the Rams offensive line should be much healthier this season, and therefore better, it won’t be a Top-10 line this year. So if the line cannot do a far better job for Goff, Goff will need to up his game to help the cause.

Time to see the wizard

So the trick is infusing that sixth-sense within Goff to help him “feel” the pressure, and then help to develop his footwork this offseason. In a wonderfully enlightening article by Jourdan Rodrigue at The Athletic.com (subscription required), we get in insider’s look at Goff’s annual pilgrimage to 3DQB, a Huntington Beach, California, quarterback training facility he has been training since 2017. While the entire article is excellent, the insight where Rodrigue asks 3DQB executive Adam Dedeaux about what Goff worked on and why is where the gold is located:

"“The ability to move inside the pocket and throw off multiple platforms was really important. And one thing Jared had to do a lot of last year was throw off his back foot. Some of that was related to his footwork, which we wanted to clean up”-Adam DeDeaux per interview with Jourdan Rodrigue of TheAtlantic.com"

Goff is showing a lot of positive leadership qualities here.  He is taking ownership. Correction 2019 is now possible.

It takes a village

This is a very positive development. The situation won’t clean up quickly this season. Even with 13 returning veterans on the offensive line, and nine with 2019 starting experience, 2020 will be all kinds of clunky at first. Players have not played together for eight months. Rust developed over time, and will not shake off with a couple of practices.

Yes, this is good stuff.  So good, in fact, that Goff himself confirmed his off-season regiment when he reported to the Rams training camp on August 3, 2020.

Information confirmed.

Anti-system-quarterback quarterback

This is very good news. After all, the Rams can’t fix what nobody owns. The fact that Goff is assuming some of the responsibility here is a huge step in the right direction. It’s the exact opposite action that a “system quarterback” would take.  Perhaps there is some hope in all of this after all?

The Rams offensive line, in the meantime, will not be shrugging their shoulders on this one. If you think for one moment that offensive line coach Aaron Kromer was pleased with 2019’s poor performance, you are sadly mistaken. At some point in the 2019 season, the focus changed from clean up to survival. The game changed for the LA Rams, converting from developing players into duct-tape treading water. They will be cleaning it up from their end too. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a team to fix a problem.

Five seasons. Five different position coaches

Goff is now in the hands of his fifth position coach: Chris Weinke, Greg Olson, Zac Taylor, Shane Waldron, and this year he has Kevin O’Connell. All the while, he continues to show up.  And he still gets a little excited with each new football season. Just a little? Yes, as he is the offensive leader. One foot on the ground at all times comes with the territory.

But I saw a change coming when the Rams hired their new offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell. He worked a mini-miracle in coaching up Washington’s rookie QB Dwayne Haskins. Now the Rams are working to clean up the offensive line, Goff’s footwork, and throwing balance, but the most important fix in all of this is cleaning up the playbook. And suddenly the offensive coordinator is listening to Goff’s feedback.  His reaction?

The Rams are finally “getting it” this year.

The sky is the limit

The results of this three-tiered “correction” plan will get more time out of the offensive line, more elusiveness out of Goff, and quick plays designed to neutralize A-gap blitzes.  How can that help the Rams offense, in the long run, this season?  The Rams offense has been so time-compressed that the team has struggled to go beyond the primary receiver on plays.  Success on offense at extending players will give Goff the necessary time to scan for secondary and tertiary receivers.

The Rams have a man open on virtually every play. Finding the open receiver was a huge challenge for the Rams in 2019. But the winds of change are blowing over Los Angeles now. Subtle changes that will translate into a huge improvement. Goff finally has a coach who truly speaks his language.

O’Connell will help Goff elevate his play to his 2018 level, with only a modest uptick from the offensive line play. LA Rams quarterback Jared Goff won’t stand for blitzes any longer. He’ll bob, weave, step aside, roll out to the right or left, and throw on the run.

This will be fun to watch.