After suffering their third consecutive loss, the Los Angeles Rams entered their much-needed bye week with one looming question: Will Case Keenum remain the starting quarterback? The veteran quarterback certainly loosened his grip on the starting spot following his four-interception performance against a below-average New York Giants defense in Week 7.
Over the bye week, head coach Jeff Fisher had rookie quarterback Jared Goff take the majority of snaps with the first-team since Keenum already had a ‘grasp’ of the offense.
However, given the struggles Keenum endured over the past several games, this has raised questions as to why he would not be taking the lion’s share of first-team snaps. According to Steve Wyche of NFL, he feels the reason for this is that the Rams are getting Goff ready to start at some point soon this season.
“From everything I’ve been told, Goff has made progress in terms of learning the offense. As for executing it? That is still unknown,” Wyche said. “I’ve also been told by people with the Rams that they would have felt fine putting him on the field should Keenum have been injured. Of course, they really had no choice. If coaches were to opt for Sean Mannion instead of Goff, that would show they might have missed on the No. 1 overall pick–at least in the short term.”
While Keenum is hardly the one to blame for the team’s current losing skid, he is the most expendable. Also, the possibility of Goff starting at some point this season is almost inevitable.
Los Angeles is faced with the decision to either stick with Keenum and try to turn the ship back around or simply cut their losses and focus on Goff’s development for the years to come.
