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Jared Goff Is Going To Start At The Worst Possible Time Thanks To Jeff Fisher

The move comes three weeks too late.

Jared Goff will start Sunday for the @RamsNFL against @MiamiDolphins in front of a home crowd, per team sources. QBs were informed this am.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) November 15, 2016

It has always been difficult to see Jeff Fisher's plan with first overall pick Jared Goff, who will make his first start on Sunday, which only confirms what had become fairly obvious: there never was a plan.

Any claims that Goff was being held out of the lineup so he could learn the system and develop as a quarterback have largely gone out the window. Making the switch now, just as the Rams offense has horrendously sputtered to the tune of two touchdowns in the last three games, screams of reactionary panic move. Which is a shame, because it's entirely too late for that. At 4-5, the Rams are essentially 2.5 games back in the division (thanks to the Seattle tie). It's probably fair to say the division is out of reach considering Seattle is just hitting their annual second-half stride, and the Rams have little hope in the Wild Card thanks to the six teams ahead of them, not to mention the three other 4-5 teams. If Goff wasn't good enough to win the job outright against Case Fucking Keenum, he probably isn't good enough to wrap up the season 7-1.

The time to salvage the season was three weeks ago, not now. Keenum has been among the worst quarterbacks in the entire league, even before the recent extreme difficulties. He's thrown nine touchdowns for 11 interceptions, ranked 32nd in QBR and 27th in Football Outsiders' DVOA. The team's early success was despite Keenum, not because of him—he completed less than 20 passes in each of their three early wins, two of which came with the offense scoring less than 20 points. The Rams only have the four wins they do because their defense has actually been decent (12th in the league according to Football Outsiders).

Now, Goff is going to get his first start against the Dolphins, the 10th best defense in the league, according to Football Outsider's rankings, behind a bad offensive line in a near-hopeless situation where the Rams essentially have one loss to give the rest of the year. It seems far more likely Goff comes out of the season battered and discombobulated about everything he learned about how the offense should theoretically function rather than gaining valuable experience. Good work, Fisher.