The first overall pick in the draft spent his first regular-season game not wearing a uniform. Whether he spends his first regular-season home game wearing a uniform is to be determined.
“No I haven’t,” coach Jeff Fisher told reporters on Tuesday regarding the question of whether he has decided on a primary backup to starter Case Keenum. “I will. And there’s that chance, too [that Goff is the backup]. He’s pushing along; this whole experience for Jared was good -- not good for our team, but good for him to see all this. We’ll decide later in the week.”
As it relates to the quarterback position generally, a very significant decision was made last week, by the players. In voting Case Keenum to be a captain for the full season, the players necessarily made their preference known between Keenum, Sean Mannion, and Goff. If the players saw Goff as a guy who would be ready to take over the offense at any point this season, Keenum probably wouldn’t have gotten the votes.
Goff eventually could become a franchise quarterback and a Super Bowl winner. He could be the starter, in theory, by the end of the month. For now, though, the inability of Goff to earn the job -- or to create the sense that he inevitably will at some point this season -- makes the decision to trade up from No. 15 to No. 1 even more glaring. This wasn’t the Rams earning the top pick and shrugging their shoulders and hoping for the best. This was the Rams deciding that Goff was worth making a move to the top of the draft.
If he was, he’d already be starting. At a minimum, the players would have seen enough out of him to think twice before making Keenum a captain.