Jared Goffâs rookie season did not go as planned. He failed to beat out Case Keenum until midseason. He went 0-7 as the Ramsâ starter. His coach, Jeff Fisher, got fired before the end of the season.
So, Goff is spending his first NFL offseason with coaches who have trained Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan.
As ESPNâs Alden Gonzalez reported Thursday, Goff is working with Tom House and Adam Dedeaux. The pair operates a quarterback training facility in Los Angeles called 3DQB.
Their client list is impressive, for the most part anyway:
- Tom Brady
- Matt Ryan
- Drew Brees
- Andy Dalton
- Carson Palmer
- Marcus Mariota
- Eli Manning
Thatâs right -- Goff is working with coaches who have helped a four-time Super Bowl MVP and the 2016 regular-season MVP. Thatâs good news for Rams fans.
But I wrote âfor the most partâ above for a reason, because there are some not so great quarterbacks who have also worked with them:
- Blake Bortles
- Alex Smith
- Joe Flacco
- Case Keenum
Thatâs right -- Goff is working with the coaches who couldnât cure this windup:
Bortles throwing motion sums up my fantasy team this year. pic.twitter.com/4XWFEDypdN
— Marcus (@SEEOHOHKAY) October 25, 2016
Bortles needs to get rid of this loop in his throwing motion. Also, his feet are ð®. pic.twitter.com/ou3lmeKOqW
— NFL Philosophy (@NFLosophy) August 30, 2016
Bortles not even pretending that he's worked on his throwing motion this year: pic.twitter.com/RTGhlgoMt2
— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) August 21, 2016
Goff has plenty that needs fixing. In eight games, he completed 54.6 percent of his passes, averaged 5.3 yards per attempt, threw five touchdowns and seven interceptions and generated a 63.6 passer rating. Considering the Rams not only drafted him first overall, but also traded up to do so, those numbers clearly werenât good enough.
Luckily for Goff, he should get more help this year. The Rams hired Sean McVay, who turned Kirk Cousins into a starting-caliber quarterback. They also brought Matt LaFleur aboard as the new offensive coordinator. LaFleur comes from Atlanta, where he spent the past couple of seasons as the Falconsâ quarterbacks coach, which means he has been working in close proximity with the reigning MVP.
LeFleur sounds happy about Goffâs decision to train with House and Dedeaux.
âIâve seen the benefits,â LaFleur told Rams reporters, per ESPN.com. âWhat those guys do is pretty valuable, and itâs not always obviously with the time constraints that we can work with these guys. And I think they offer some things that maybe we canât as coaches, from just a strength and conditioning standpoint in terms of how these guys train and keep their core strong, keep their shoulders strong.
âYouâre talking about a long season for these quarterbacks. I didnât see Matt Ryan fall off from day one to the Super Bowl. His arm strength was as good as it was at the end of the season. I think a lot of that was a credit to how he trained.â
So, Goff is at least putting the work in. Now, heâll just need that training to translate to the regular season, which is easier said than done. For every Brady, Brees and Ryan, thereâs a Bortles, Flacco and Keenum.