NFL Rumors: NFL’s Rapoport reports LA Rams Goff vs Wolford

Today’s latest NFL Rumors: NFL’s Ian Rapoport reports LA Rams Jared Goff will compete with John Wolford for the starting quarterback position ‘if he’s not traded’.

The LA Rams front office and coaching staff are working the news and NFL Rumors section pretty hard right now. The latest NFL Rumors report from NFL Network Ian Rapoport is a pretty good recap of what we have known, or hinted at, up until now.  From the moment that head coach Sean McVay declared that the Rams will hold an open competition for the quarterback role, it was known then and there that the competition would be between John Wolford and Jared Goff.

They are the only two quarterbacks with starting experience on the team. And the 20201 training camp was set up to be a fair competition to determine who will be the starter. Or is it?

Let’s pause here. Something is not right. The story is that if Goff is not traded, then he will be in direct competition with backup quarterback John Wolford for the team’s starting job. But there are too many facts that simply no longer align with this story.  How so? Let’s examine some facts.

No offense runs two playbooks

Jared Goff is a traditional pocket passer. John Wolford is a mobile quarterback. While they play the same position on the football field, they play the position in vastly different ways. For Goff, his strength is standing upright in the pocket, perhaps moving a little bit to avoid the pass rush, and keeping his focus downfield. He uses play-action to freeze linebackers and defensive backs and relies upon a running back to carry the load in the ground game.

John Wolford is a mobile quarter who can challenge a defense both in the passing game and in the running game. He challenges defenses with RPO plays, run-pass options that give the quarterback the option to hand off the ball, run with the ball, or pass the ball. With Wolford under center, the Rams can run bootlegs, reverse sweeps, and threaten to move the ball in more ways than possible with a traditional pocket passer.

But the Rams are not foolish. The deck is already stacked against Goff. After all, the team has three mobile quarterbacks on one side, Goff on the other. And unless things have changed overnight, the Rams offense will not be written twice – once for Goff, once for all others.

The phrase that jumps out from Ian Rapoport’s narrative is that phrase ‘If he’s not traded’.  Much like the verbiage used throughout the short off-season so far, it’s practically a plea for other NFL teams to make an offer. Goff is on the NFL trading block folks, officially or unofficially. And in doing so, the LA Rams are taking some huge risks of destroying Goff’s future in hopes of landing something better.