High strung or standards?: LA Rams McVay cussed out QB Goff

Calling out Goff became routine

Calling out Goff became routine by McVay after that. A relationship of trust and loyalty became one of mistrust and disdain. But the negative emotions, as the report goes, became one-sided. The Rams lost a dedicated quarterback coach in the 2019 season, and so the path from head coach to a still very young and still developing quarterback became raw and unfiltered. That also coincided when the offense eroded.

McVay sets incredibly high standards, most of all for himself. And like all head coaches, when he makes the suggestion to ‘correct that’, his expectation was that would be corrected. Instantly? Perhaps not. But within a week or two? Yes.

It was easy to lose the fact that Jared Goff was so young, and that young quarterbacks who are extremely talented take a lot of time to harness, even master, all of those skillsets, to deliver their optimal performance in their NFL career. Perhaps one of the worst things to happen to the dynamics of Sean McVay and Jared Goff was playing in Super Bowl LIII. That set the bar too high. That created expectation in McVay that the team, not just quarterback Jared Goff, would not be able to meet in 2019.

Head coaches call out their quarterbacks rather routinely in the NFL. But on almost parallel career tracks, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff struggled to perform with a direct reporting line to their head coach. Coach speak is such that they state what needs to be done, and there is an action plan to deliver by the positional coach. But if no active QB coach exists? The plan and the execution fall to the quarterback. The same guy facing the defense in the games now faces an angry head coach in practice.