Following a Thursday Night Football blowout of the New England Patriots, the Los Angeles Rams looked like legitimate contenders to win the Super Bowl.
While Jared Goff wasn’t playing his best football, Sean McVay still showed some trust in him to make the plays necessary to win games. It was working, as the Rams were 9-4 heading into a matchup against the winless New York Jets.
Goff was then very uneven in a game that should have been an easy win for a team doing some of their best work of the season. McVay directly criticized him after the loss to the Jets, saying the quarterback simply cannot turn the ball over. This, in addition to a thumb injury, led to the decision to start John Wolford in the Rams’ playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks while Goff was apparently healthy enough to play.
A loss to the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round left the Rams with more questions than answers, the biggest of them being the reportedly fractured relationship between McVay and Goff, according to a report by NFL Network’s Steve Wyche:
“The people I’ve spoken to said basically, at this moment, the relationship with Goff and McVay: not great,” Wyche said on NFL Network. “They need marriage counseling, is what one person said to me. I think this is something that they’re going to be able to work through, but there’s got to be some healing and that’s not just with Jared Goff’s injured thumb.”
If McVay has lost his trust in Goff as a starting quarterback then keeping him on the roster can only do more harm than good. However, they have several months before they need to make that decision, and perhaps the coach-quarterback duo can use that time to figure out what’s broken and how to fix it.
The Rams are only two years removed from a Super Bowl appearance and Goff’s second Pro Bowl selection. The 2021 season is also the beginning of the four-year, $134 million contract extension Goff signed two years ago, making him even more difficult to trade if the Rams decided to go that route.
The odds are that Goff remains the starter in L.A., but it’s possible that if McVay and the front office are offered a good enough deal, they’ll move on from their No. 1 overall draft pick in favor of a different option.
McVay proud of accomplishments in 2020
Despite all the negative rumors, McVay said he was proud of what the team accomplished in 2020, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Rams got to the divisional round of the playoffs when many felt they were not even a playoff-caliber team.
L.A. also sported the NFL’s top-ranked defense in multiple categories thanks to phenomenal seasons from Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey.
