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Fisher on how, when Jared Goff can earn Rams' starting QB job
By Eric Edholm
[sports.yahoo.com]
I caught up with Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on the phone right after he had put a bow on the team's OTAs and sent the team packing until training camp. There's one player who will have a little extra summer homework as he prepares for the Rams' first camp back on the west coast after its relocation.
That would be No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff, who has the chance to start this season but will not be handed the job, Fisher said, according to some prescribed plan. Fisher said Goff is in control of when he can wrest the job away from de facto starter Case Keenum but that nothing is guaranteed or assured for the rookie right now.
"We'll start him when he's ready. That's what I've been saying, and that's what I told him and them [Goff's teammates]," Fisher told Shutdown Corner. "Is it the opener? That I don't know. We've got that option [with Keenum] and can easily go that route and be good with that. We're not locked in there.
"Just as I told you last summer, we were not going to set a timetable with Todd [Gurley] only to change it. Now, that was a different deal with an injury, and it's a different position. But same philosophy. The schedule on this thing could change every day up until [the opener]."
What Fisher has been able to glean thus far is that Goff has what it takes physically, backing up what the coach said he and his staff could see on tape and in workouts with their young quarterback. "Nothing has changed there," Fisher said. "We saw the physical tools there, and we've seen them now. They're just what we thought, and actually they might be even better than we thought."
He has received first-team reps and also been relegated to work with the reserves, which includes several rookie receivers, with the hope being that they mesh with Goff. But the Rams are not dialing much back so far with him otherwise.
It might be common practice this time of year to play vanilla coverages and fronts in OTA sessions because NFL teams are allotted so few of them. But the Rams are taking the opposite approach: It works twofold because this is a talented, experienced defense that can handle a lot and that the multiple looks the Rams are throwing at Goff are serving to speed up his education before he gets to camp.
"We are what we call a hybrid defense, I'd say," Fisher said. "We used a lot of different fronts — over, under, odd, even — with our groupings, and [Goff] is seeing a lot of that now so far. He's done a great job to this point thus far of seeing these looks, dissecting them quickly and making decisions."
Have the Rams tricked him a few times?
"Oh sure, but what you notice is he plays the position like a cornerback, like a veteran," Fisher said. "I haven't seen his head slung down once. [Goff] makes a mistake and he's jumping back in that huddle and getting them lined up for the next play."
Fisher believes some of that comes from the fact that Goff started as a true freshman at Cal on a completely rebooted team and faced not only weekly adversity, but also a ton of pressure — internal and external — on a daily basis.
"You saw how he handled everything that was thrown at him at Berkeley, and you know that made him tougher, made him smarter," Fisher said. "He's not letting one bad play bother him because it shouldn't. All the good ones have some of that somewhere."
Jared Goff has reached out to Blake Bortles, Marcus Mariota for advice. Yahoo's Jackie Bamberger spoke with Goff, who said that advice from Blake Bortles and Marcus Mariota, plus a few former Rams quarterbacks, has helped him as he gets ready for camp. Fisher noted that Goff is "doing what he needs to do" to master the Rams offense to this point and put himself in a position to earn that starting spot.
It has been a while since Fisher has worked with a rookie quarterback who had a realistic chance to earn a starting job early on — a decade, in fact. That would be Vince Young in 2006, with the Tennessee Titans. Although we since have found out that Young wasn't Fisher's first choice, the Titans took the ball away from incumbent starter Kerry Collins after the first three games of the regular season before giving Young a chance to start.
Fisher would not compare the two situations, saying they were vastly different, but did say he was able to learn from that experience and the experience of working with other first-year quarterbacks. Some things work, and others do not. One thing Fisher believes is bad no matter what: Starting a rookie QB before his time.
"What you don't want to do is set him up to fail," Fisher said. "That's not what you want to do with a young quarterback, and we don't intend to. Nothing is set in stone there."
By Eric Edholm
[sports.yahoo.com]
I caught up with Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on the phone right after he had put a bow on the team's OTAs and sent the team packing until training camp. There's one player who will have a little extra summer homework as he prepares for the Rams' first camp back on the west coast after its relocation.
That would be No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff, who has the chance to start this season but will not be handed the job, Fisher said, according to some prescribed plan. Fisher said Goff is in control of when he can wrest the job away from de facto starter Case Keenum but that nothing is guaranteed or assured for the rookie right now.
"We'll start him when he's ready. That's what I've been saying, and that's what I told him and them [Goff's teammates]," Fisher told Shutdown Corner. "Is it the opener? That I don't know. We've got that option [with Keenum] and can easily go that route and be good with that. We're not locked in there.
"Just as I told you last summer, we were not going to set a timetable with Todd [Gurley] only to change it. Now, that was a different deal with an injury, and it's a different position. But same philosophy. The schedule on this thing could change every day up until [the opener]."
What Fisher has been able to glean thus far is that Goff has what it takes physically, backing up what the coach said he and his staff could see on tape and in workouts with their young quarterback. "Nothing has changed there," Fisher said. "We saw the physical tools there, and we've seen them now. They're just what we thought, and actually they might be even better than we thought."
He has received first-team reps and also been relegated to work with the reserves, which includes several rookie receivers, with the hope being that they mesh with Goff. But the Rams are not dialing much back so far with him otherwise.
It might be common practice this time of year to play vanilla coverages and fronts in OTA sessions because NFL teams are allotted so few of them. But the Rams are taking the opposite approach: It works twofold because this is a talented, experienced defense that can handle a lot and that the multiple looks the Rams are throwing at Goff are serving to speed up his education before he gets to camp.
"We are what we call a hybrid defense, I'd say," Fisher said. "We used a lot of different fronts — over, under, odd, even — with our groupings, and [Goff] is seeing a lot of that now so far. He's done a great job to this point thus far of seeing these looks, dissecting them quickly and making decisions."
Have the Rams tricked him a few times?
"Oh sure, but what you notice is he plays the position like a cornerback, like a veteran," Fisher said. "I haven't seen his head slung down once. [Goff] makes a mistake and he's jumping back in that huddle and getting them lined up for the next play."
Fisher believes some of that comes from the fact that Goff started as a true freshman at Cal on a completely rebooted team and faced not only weekly adversity, but also a ton of pressure — internal and external — on a daily basis.
"You saw how he handled everything that was thrown at him at Berkeley, and you know that made him tougher, made him smarter," Fisher said. "He's not letting one bad play bother him because it shouldn't. All the good ones have some of that somewhere."
Jared Goff has reached out to Blake Bortles, Marcus Mariota for advice. Yahoo's Jackie Bamberger spoke with Goff, who said that advice from Blake Bortles and Marcus Mariota, plus a few former Rams quarterbacks, has helped him as he gets ready for camp. Fisher noted that Goff is "doing what he needs to do" to master the Rams offense to this point and put himself in a position to earn that starting spot.
It has been a while since Fisher has worked with a rookie quarterback who had a realistic chance to earn a starting job early on — a decade, in fact. That would be Vince Young in 2006, with the Tennessee Titans. Although we since have found out that Young wasn't Fisher's first choice, the Titans took the ball away from incumbent starter Kerry Collins after the first three games of the regular season before giving Young a chance to start.
Fisher would not compare the two situations, saying they were vastly different, but did say he was able to learn from that experience and the experience of working with other first-year quarterbacks. Some things work, and others do not. One thing Fisher believes is bad no matter what: Starting a rookie QB before his time.
"What you don't want to do is set him up to fail," Fisher said. "That's not what you want to do with a young quarterback, and we don't intend to. Nothing is set in stone there."
