It's a bit wild to envision the Los Angeles Rams enmeshed in the Chicago Bears controversy over the fact that their coaches had left top-selected USC rookie QB Caleb Williams to study films by himself. No coaches had the time to invest in helping the pilot of the offense on how to interpret NFL defenses. And to be fair, it showed.
The viral responses to Seth Wichersham's book detailing how Caleb Williams just turns on videos and watches films and videos are running amok right now. Plenty of former NFL quarterbacks are showing up and sharing best practices for quarterbacks regarding film study. Here is how Chase Daniels believes it should happen:
But this is not the first time something like this had happened. In fact, when the Los Angeles Rams hired Sean McVay to take over the Rams job as the youngest head coach in the NFL, one of the early moves by McVay was to instantly diagnose the problem that Jared Goff had with studying film.
Rams had to reinforce Jared Goff's video study in 2017
While Jared Goff was drafted with the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, he played to a record of 0-7 as a rookie quarterback with the Rams. The following season, he smashed all expectations by leading the Rams to a record of 11-5, while putting up an incredibly effective offense.
Curiously, he did not do it alone. Now we are discovering that former Rams quarterback Dan Orlovsky had a huge hand in bolstering the effectiveness and production of second-year quarterback Jared Goff:
Here is Dan Orlovsky sharing this fascinating tale of how he was hired by Rams HC Sean McVay in 2017, specifically to teach young QB Jared Goff how to study film. While the story is both shocking and incredibly insightful, it proves just how kudos-worthy Coach McVay, Jared Goff, and Dan Orlovsky were in that 2017 NFL season.
Check it out as Dan Orlovsky's interview footage by Doug Farrar below:
Keep in mind that Orlovsky confirms that Jared Goff exerts complete command over the Detroit Lions offense. But he had to learn how to get key elements of information from video feeds by being taught, and Dan Orlovsky became that tutor for Goff in 2017.
One more bread crumb. One more peak behind the curtain. These are the tales that I love to uncover and share, because it continues to prove that the NFL is not as regimented and process-driven that fans believe it to be. Players are human, and humans make mistakes and have limits.
It also adds some solid background over the frustrations between Coach McVay and QB Goff after the 2020 season. If Sean McVay invested in a video film tutor in 2017, that could explain his frustration with Goff several years later at not being able to interpret defensive keys quickly enough to make plays.
I hope you enjoyed this revelation as much as I did. As always, thanks for reading.