LA Rams: Will there or won’t there be competition for starting punter?

The LA Rams ended the 2020 season with a pledge from head coach Sean McVay. That pledge? To improve every aspect of their team with the introduction of competition. Even at quarterback? Yes, especially at quarterback.

And that marked the beginning of the end of the LA Rams relationship with starting quarterback Jared Goff. The LA Rams paid Goff to perform among the best of the NFL, to generate the type of production to ensure that the Rams offense remained among the Top-10 scoring offenses of the NFL.  But perhaps even more than that, the Rams paid Goff to secure the football and minimize errors that would create turnovers.

In 2020, Goff was unable to deliver in either category. Not a mere slip, but an outright regressive freefall. And it happened despite the Rams coaching staff emphasizing the need to improve at the quarterback area in several key areas. And when the 2020 season opened, there was reason to believe that some critical improvements were addressed.

The objective for Goff in 2020 was to learn how to throw off-sequence and from multiple platforms. Goff had gotten into the bad habit of throwing without velocity and off his back foot. That was a problem that needed correction. The problem was, after showing signs of improvement early in the season, Goff fell back into the horrifying bad habits once more. McVay had seen enough.

That underachievement set a number of events in motion that began with the surprising comments from head coach Sean McVay. It may have been fueled by disappointment or frustration, but the words are now a matter of public record. That’s a very important point for what comes next. Crucial, in fact.