Jared Goff is much improved in Year 2. (Andrew Boyers/Reuters)
The articles penned on former No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Jared Goff this offseason weren’t pretty. A simple Google search for “Jared Goff Bust” nets dozens of articles picking apart the Rams quarterback. With good reason. Stuart Chase of Football Perspective concluded that, when adjusting for era, Goff’s rookie season was worse statistically than Ryan Leaf’s.
The thing is, though — and I’m sure you’ve noticed this — playing quarterback in the NFL is hard. It’s on the coaches to make that incredibly difficult job as easy as humanly possible. The Rams’ staff a season ago did not hold up its end of the bargain. The new regime, Coach Sean McVay and offensive coordinator Matt LeFleur, has been on the opposite end of the spectrum.
The phrase “quarterback friendly” gets thrown around a lot to describe a system, but it’s really just a synonym for good scheming. If you’re not making life easy at the most important position on the field, then what exactly are you doing? McVay’s system has certainly earned the moniker, but let’s examine exactly how he’s done it.
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Take the Pressure off the Position
While last year’s regime tried to take some pressure off their quarterback by going run heavy, it backfired with one of the least effective rushing attacks in the NFL. There are more ways to ease a quarterback’s burden than by taking the ball out of his hands.
One of the simplest and most effective ways is the play-action pass. It’s no coincidence that the Texans’ offense went from looking like a bumbling mess to one of the best in the league after it became the most play-action heavy team in the NFL. Similarly, it’s no coincidence that Goff has seen a considerable turnaround in his performance after utilizing play action on 14.1 percent of dropbacks last year (second lowest rate of any QB in the league) to 26.1 percent of dropbacks this season (sixth highest rate in NFL).
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It’s incorrect to think that you need a strong running game to use play action. While you’re not going to fool anyone if you use it on third-and-10, in any reasonable situation where the offense could run the ball, it works. Defensive linemen and linebackers still have to execute their run assignments. Below are the numbers league wide with and without play action.
| Stat | No PA | PA |
| Comp % | 60.60% | 62.10% |
| YPA | 6.5 | 8.1 |
| TD Rate | 3.70% | 6.00% |
| INT Rate | 2.30% | 2.40% |
| Time to Throw | 2.45 | 2.81 |
| QB Rating | 82.3 | 97.6 |
| Pressure Rate | 29.60% | 32.30% |
Those splits are eye opening, and should be shown to every coach in the NFL. It affords a QB much more time, without subjecting him to meaningfully more pressure and results in so many more favorable opportunities down the field. Goff’s numbers with and without play-action mirror the NFL rates almost exactly:
| Stat | No PA | PA |
| Comp % | 59.00% | 62.50% |
| YPA | 7.0 | 10.1 |
| TD Rate | 4.80% | 1.80% |
| INT Rate | 2.30% | 0.00% |
| Time to Throw | 2.52 | 3.2 |
| QB Rating | 102.2 | 86.3 |
| Pressure Rate | 30.10% | 32.10% |
Deploying Weapons
The talent difference between the 2016 Rams offense and the 2017 Rams offense is undeniable. The entire starting receiving corps turned over for the better from a season ago. The impact of players such as Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, Cooper Kupp, Gerald Everett and Andrew Whitworth on the offense is undeniable, but it’s the way they’ve utilized those new and existing weapons that’s allowed them to lead the NFL in points per game (30.3).
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Tavon Austin is no longer being asked to be a legitimate receiver. Kupp has been given the freedom to dominate the underneath route tree from the slot. And Todd Gurley is being schemed many more runs that test the edges of opposing defenses. Gurley’s best attribute is his ability to elude tackles with either agility or power in space. His vision has never been his strong suit, and his numbers suffered a season ago because he was often pounded directly into the center of a porous offensive line. Only 37.4 percent of his runs hit outside the tackles a season ago and a lot of those were him bouncing out with no hope inside. This season, 48.3 percent of his runs have hit off tackle and the results speak for themselves.
The Check down
One aspect of Goff’s game this year that has been drastically different is the rate at which he targets running backs. Any Gurley fantasy owner should have noticed this already. A season ago Goff had 190 targeted passes, 24 of which came to running backs (12.6 percent). This year on 208 dropbacks, Goff has targeted his backs 37 times (17.8 percent). Now five percentage points may not seem like a lot, but that translates to almost two plays a game. Those same two plays a season ago resulted in panic from their quarterback. With no outlet, those plays were sacks. They were interceptions. They were ugly. Now they’re positive plays that lead to far less stress on a young quarterback.
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That’s truly the key. The biggest visual difference between Jared Goff from Year 1 to Year 2 is his stress level. He went from looking like he had never seen a pass rush before to operating the pocket like a veteran. A whole book can be written on all the differences from this year to last in L.A., but at the end of the day, it comes down to doing everything possible to make the quarterback’s life easier.
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