Coach’s take: Rams QB Jared Goff good enough to win Super Bowl
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- With the Los Angeles Rams at 9-4 in the driver’s seat in the NFC West, some NFL observers wonder if quarterback Jared Goff can lead them back to the Super Bowl, and this time win it.?
Former NFL head coach June Jones believes the Rams can win it all with Goff. Jones, who lit up scoreboards with the run-and-shoot offensive system, coached the likes of Warren Moon, Chris Miller, Bobby Herbert and Jeff George during his 13 seasons coaching in the NFL, along with Jim Kelly in the USFL. He believes Goff has the right stuff to lead the Rams into a deep playoff run.
Jones and the originator of the run-and-shoot, Mouse Davis, offer course work on how to learn and teach the innovative offense through coachtube.com.
“It’s a very interesting course and you get to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” Jones said. “Mouse is almost 90 years old and has been one of the greatest coaches of all-time. … To hear Mouse and I teach the offense and then turn to the videos and see it in real time, it’s a big advantage to any coach.”
Only Tom Brady has more wins than Goff (42) since the start of the 2017 season. And while the Cal product has struggled at times against pressure and taking care of the football, he’s in a nice rhythm as the Rams head down the backstretch of the 2020 season.
“Jared is a top 10 QB in the league,” Jones said. “You can win with him. He went to the Super Bowl already and played that season very well. If the Rams had played in the Super Bowl game the way they had gotten there, they might have won it and this question would not have been asked.
“But the game plan that day was to keep from losing, not to win the game so he was not the same guy he was during the season.”
While Goff, 26, has played better for late. Jones says there’s room for improvement.
“Goff has to take care of the ball in the pocket,” Jones said. “As a coach you have to continually talk in practice over and over on the reps he takes. It’s hard to simulate a game versus your own team. You cannot have your own team swat at the ball in practice as you may lose your starter if you do if something like a thumb or finger gets broken. So mentally you have to harp on him all the time to use two hands to secure the ball in pocket.
“His decision making under pressure stems from the system that they have at the Rams. Like most teams, they give the free blitzer to the QB to get rid of the ball. If it was the same protection all the time and he knew where the free one is coming from, then he will make better decisions with the ball.”
Jones also weighed in one of the hot topics for football fans in Los Angeles -- would you take Goff or Justin Herbert as your quarterback for the present and the future?
Jones, who played quarterback at the University of Oregon from 1971 to 1972, stood by his alma mater.
“I like both QB’s but I think Herbert has really played well for a rookie,” Jones said. “I like his size and ability to make all the throws. His vertical throws are superior. He’s very accurate and has command of the field. Being a former Duck myself I would take Herbert. There’s a lot of upside there.”
Even with the influx of mobile quarterback like Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray, Jones still believes NFL teams need a signal caller that can win from the pocket.
“The pocket is alive and will never die,” Jones said. ‘But what has become more important is a QB that can create when the pockets break down – don’t create runs for QB’s but getting one that can throw and then run from the pocket is a tremendous advantage for a team.”
