LA Rams will pit Goff in fierce QB competition this season

Goff may be a fixture on the Rams roster, but his starting role can be up for grabs

The Rams may have assured that Jared Goff will remain on the roster of the team for the next several years, but that does not guarantee him a starting role. Goff gets paid, yes. But he gets paid whether starting or sitting. While that makes the Rams very foolish indeed for paying so much for a player to sit, the key to this strategy is to make Goff uncomfortable enough to refocus his play to improving each year.

That means that the Rams will need to add quarterbacks to the roster. Not just undrafted free agents, but quarterbacks whose talents and experience give them a viable chance of pushing Goff in practice. Or, at the least, a veteran mobile quarterback who can serve to mentor the dual-threat quarterbacks who are trying to develop quickly enough to compete for playing time.  Wolford has a game under his belt, and that will certainly help.

There will be free agents, some of whom are happy to stay on an NFL roster. We saw big named quarterbacks happy to play for cents on the dollar. Some did okay. Others did not do well at all. So that may or may not be a good strategy for the Rams to infuse immediate competition into the quarterback position.

I feel a draft in the room

So the Rams will likely turn to the 2021 NFL Draft for a quarterback to compete. If the Rams had selected quarterback Jalen Hurts in the 2020 NFL Draft as we had lobbied, would the Rams be in a similar quarterback controversy as the Eagles are now? Or would Jalen Hurts have saved the Rams season, by winning in Arizona and Seattle, and giving that Packers defense too much field to defend?

The Rams have plenty of good options at quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft. And with no 2021 NFL Scouting Combine, how many talented signal-callers will fall to the Rams on day two? Well, there will be a few, and if the Rams truly want competition at quarterback, that is the best place to find it.

Do not expect 2021 to ease the restrictions on NFL teams in terms of face to face encounters with players. No ‘All’s Clear!’ has been sounded. COVID-19 protocols will likely be enforced through the 2021 NFL Season as well. So rookies will have a longer path to develop. Even if the Rams draft a quarterback in round two, he may not take the field in all of 2021. That’s okay, as long as the threat of him doing so exists. After all, Goff needs to be pushed to compete, not to despair.