The Los Angeles Rams saw their season come to an end on Saturday, falling to the Green Bay Packers, 32-18, in the NFL divisional round.
While injuries were a big reason the Rams lost, there still are a lot of questions that need to be answered moving forward, specifically at the quarterback position.
Jared Goff was dealing with a fractured thumb that required surgery less than three weeks ago, but actually played solid in the Rams’ two postseason games.
As a whole though, he had a very up and down season, turning the ball over way more than the Rams would have liked. In 15 regular-season games, Goff completed a career-high 67% of his passes for 3,952 yards with 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He also rushed for four touchdowns but also fumbled seven times.
Considering the Rams had the top-ranked defense in the NFL, the team’s inability to consistently move the ball offensively was the root of most of their struggles in 2020.
Goff remains under contract in 2021 and beyond after signing a big extension a couple of years ago, but Rams head coach Sean McVay had an interesting answer when asked if he is the team’s starter moving forward, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN:
“Yeah, he’s our quarterback,” McVay said during a Zoom session with reporters, “right now.”
McVay then went on to clarify those comments the next day:
“Everything’s being evaluated,” McVay said. “I’m not ready to make any sort of statements with regards to anybody — starting position or not, we’re going to have a level of competition at everything that we do.”
“We’re in a situation that we’re in evaluation mode,” McVay said when asked if there was a scenario where Goff would not be on the roster in 2021. “We’re moving forward, we’re looking forward, and I can’t answer any of those questions until I take a step back and evaluate everything that is in the best interest of the Rams.”
The ‘right now’ part of McVay’s originaly answer leaves open the possibility that they will look to make a change this offseason. If they want to do so though, it certainly won’t be easy considering he has more than $43 million remaining in guaranteed money in his contract without any way to offset it.
With past bonused added, the Rams’ cap hit for Goff would be more than $65 million if they released him, and the likelihood of finding a team taking on his contract in a trade is also highly unlikely.
So with that being said, Goff will likely head into 2021 as the team’s starter, although Wolford could give him a run for his money if he sticks around.
Wolford played solid in the Week 17 win over the Arizona Cardinals and actually started the Wild Card game against the Seattle Seahawks, eventually being forced to leave with a neck injury that required Goff to finish out the game.
It will be interesting to see if the Rams take a flyer on a quarterback in the middle-to-late rounds of the 2021 draft, or if they are comfortable going into next season with Goff and Wolford as they quarterbacks once again.
