Written by Will Brinson at CBSSports.com
Our breakdown of winners and losers from Week 2 of the NFL preseason could have easily included Jared Goff in the latter category. The Rams rookie quarterback isn’t having the best run under center, struggling early to adapt.
Things are going so poorly that, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher/Report, Goff isn’t just behind Case Keenum on the Rams depth chart — he’s the third-string quarterback behind Sean Mannion as well.
Jared Goff is currently not the Rams’ starting quarterback and may not be the No. 2 according to sources, I talked to. Two coaches admitted Goff’s talent is obvious and he will eventually be the starter. But he’s also not ready to take over. Veteran Case Keenum is still running the L.A. offense. Goff is often being outperformed by second-year pro Sean Mannion in practice. Goff was the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft but there’s no guarantee he’ll be the No. 1 quarterback any time soon.
Goff is listed as the second quarterback on the depth chart at the Rams official site. But those preseason depth charts are often just put out by the PR teams and aren’t designed to be official for coaching staff purposes.
Against the Chiefs it held true, though, as Keenum started the game for the Rams, played a pair of series and was replaced by Goff, who played the rest of the game.
As noted by Ryan Wilson in our takeaways from Saturday night, it was a questionable start for the rookie.
But with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, No. 1 pick Jared Goff took the field. A week after he completed just 4 of 9 passes and left early with what was feared to be a shoulder injury, he was back in action. And on the first snap … he promptly threw an incomplete pass. There’s more: A play later, Goff tripped over one of his own lineman and lost a fumble in the process.
Part of the issue here is you’ve got limited time to get a rookie ready to play in the NFL and those reps are precious. So there’s a necessity of force-feeding a player taken No. 1 overall in instances like this.
To continue reading this article, click here.
