Jared Goff Picking it up Quickly

When you pick a quarterback the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, he is expected to start right away. That’s especially the case when the team gives up a king’s ransom so they can make the pick. So of course, the plan all along for the Los Angeles Rams was for Jared Goff to be the starter.

But if things are going to work out for Goff, he must first master the Bible-sized playbook. It’s only rookie minicamp, but Jared Goff seems well on his way to doing that for the Rams these days. Through two days of rookie camp, he is already impressing the coaching staff with his strides in the offense.

Head coach Jeff Fisher told the team’s official website, “He’s doing a great job picking up our offense. We’ve given him a lot more information than we did at the private workout and then that we did here at our meeting, and he’s handled it without any problem. And that’s the impressive thing.”

The only issue he’s having is with the timing element, which Goff excels at, due to the practices being run at half-speed.

Fisher said, “A little frustrating at times for him because he’s setting the back foot and getting ready to go, and we’re running half-speed routes. So if you see balls hit the ground or things like that, it’s all because we’re encouraging the skill players not to run full speed.”

Picking up the offense is an underrated part of the game for quarterbacks because not all rookies do it quickly. That is especially the case for Spread Offense quarterbacks as Marcus Mariota struggled with calling the plays in his rookie camp. The Rams mortgaged the future to trade up to get him because they feel like they’re a quarterback away.

So it’s a good sign that he’s picking things up quickly and is on pace to start Week 1.