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Jared Goff Runs into Sam Bradford’s Old Problems in Los Angeles

Even though the Rams are playing in a new city, the issues that have plagued the Rams offense in St. Louis for at least a decade remain. That's bad news for Jared Goff.
Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

In today's NFL, maybe more so than at any previous point in the league's history, contending teams need a franchise-caliber quarterback. Which presents an obvious problem in terms of getting a franchise quarterback—they aren't making many of them, and teams tend to tie down the ones they have. The NFL Draft, the traditional way for teams to score franchise-changing quarterbacks, isn't a magic bullet, either. This is a very difficult job, and young quarterbacks have a high bust rate—scouting brains isn't as easy as scouting tools. They're also very expensive to acquire, since demand is so high. This is how Brock Osweiler, with all of seven NFL starts to his name and just the faintest whiff of a franchise skill set, got $37 million in guarantees from the Houston Texans this off-season.

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The Los Angeles Rams know they need a franchise quarterback, and knew they didn't have one on the roster. So they rolled the dice and traded up for the No. 1 pick in the Draft, then used it on Cal's Jared Goff. As the second week of Rams OTAs gets underway, there are reasons to believe he has what it takes, and that this gamble could pay off. Goff isn't a bulletproof prospect in the way Andrew Luck was, but his pocket presence is astonishingly good, and the system he played in at Cal obscured just how strong his arm is.

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But even though the Rams are playing in a new city this season, with a few new faces on Jeff Fisher's coaching staff, the issues that plagued the offense in St. Louis for at least a decade remain—the same issues that the team's last No. 1 pick, quarterback Sam Bradford, could not overcome.

The Rams have been unable to create an actual NFL offense since the heady days of Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show on Turf at the turn of the century. Warner's replacement, Marc Bulger, had his moments but soon became too dinged up to be effective; the team finished 14th in offensive Defense-adjusted Value Over Average in 2006, and they have stayed in the bottom third of the league ever since. That's ten years of futility punctuated by a brutal 2007-11 stretch where they failed to climb above 30th. In 2009, Bulger's final year in the league, the Rams went 1-15 and earned the first overall pick in the 2010 Draft, which they spent on a well-regarded quarterback from the University of Oklahoma. Five years later, Sam Bradford was gone, too.

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While ultimately Bradford never displayed a level of play worth trusting in as a franchise guy, a number of extenuating circumstances that led to his failure in St. Louis. He wasn't given much in the way of star-level offensive talent, even though the Rams seemed to draft wide receivers early on a yearly basis. St. Louis failed time and time again to develop an offensive line, failing first in an attempt to do it via free agency and then through the draft. That made it hard to run the ball, even with a nearly Hall-of-Fame-caliber back in Steven Jackson.

Today, Todd Gurley is a better version of Jackson, but Goff faces a lot of the same obstacles in Los Angeles. Head coach Jeff Fisher still favors a run-heavy offense. The team still has bad receivers and a bad line, and hasn't effectively addressed either problem no matter how much draft capital they throw at it.

Todd Gurley and Jared Goff contemplate their future at Rams OTAs. Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Los Angeles' No. 1 receiver at the moment is Tavon Austin, who had his fifth-year option picked up. Austin has track-star speed, which helped the Rams offense on misdirection plays and end-arounds, but as a receiver he finished dead last in DYAR in 2015. In fact, he has yet to have a positive DVOA in his professional career. At this point, Austin is a slants-and-screens guy who is prone to dropping the ball—not exactly what you want in your passing game's primary target.

He's also the best receiver Los Angeles has. The Rams have picked eight wide receivers in the draft since 2010, and Austin is the only one who has averaged more than 30 catches a season. Greg Salas is bottom-of-the-roster filler; Chris Givens signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. Mardy Gilyard and Austin Pettis are out of the league. Brian Quick appeared to have a breakout year in 2014, but then immediately got hurt and barely played last season. Stedman Bailey suffered a gunshot wound to the head last year, and doctors have advised him not to attempt a comeback. Thus, despite a very aggressive investment strategy in wideouts, the Rams are still starting Fisher talisman Kenny Britt.

The Rams' offensive line also continues to be a problem. The Rams ranked 28th in Pro Football Focus' offensive line grading last year, after finishing 31st in 2014. The only metric in which they rank highly, according to Football Outsiders' Adjusted Line Yards, are open-field yards—the yards gained by running backs once they're done with the line.

The current crew of linemen are young, so there's hope for some improvement. Left tackle Greg Robinson has worked out with line guru LeCharles Bentley, and Rob Havenstein wasn't half-bad as a rookie right tackle last year. Despite all the recent investment in the line, however, Tim Barnes is still the best this team can do at center.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Goff is going to be a bust, of course. But given what we know about the team around him, odds are his numbers aren't going to be great right away. The Rams have a new quarterback, a new stadium, and even some new coaching staff under Fisher. But unfortunately for Goff, the same old story still applies to important portions of this team. That's going to make his job harder in the coming year. Even a legitimate franchise quarterback can't turn a team around on his own.