Will Los Angeles Rams Win With Jared Goff Starting in Week 11?

The Los Angeles Rams will engage in a new era on offense starting in week 11, as head coach Jeff Fisher has officially finally buckled and named rookie quarterback Jared Goff the team’s new starter going forward.

New Era

BREAKING: Rams will start No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff against the Dolphins on Sunday, per @mortreport pic.twitter.com/Hhl55z5Hci

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 15, 2016

Fisher had stood firmly behind former starter Case Keenum all season, despite numerous disastrous performances and a mediocre 4-5 start.

Despite stating after the Rams’ week 10 win that Keenum would again remain the team’s starter under center, news broke on Tuesday that Goff would indeed finally take over the team’s quarterback job.

Long Time Coming

It’s truly astonishing that it took this long for the Rams to make the switch, as Keenum was very rarely the reason L.A. wound up winning games.

In fact, the Rams were getting by largely thanks to their defense and Keenum’s presence was holding the entire offense – namely star rusher Todd Gurley – hostage.

There had been rumors that Goff, despite being the #1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, was nowhere ready to take on the team’s starting quarterback job. That still may end up being the case, but Goff was drafted to be the long-term solution and in the short-term, it’s awfully difficult to imagine even the rawest of passing prospects being a whole lot worse than what Keenum has provided.

A former Houston product and prolific college passer, Keenum ends his 2016 run with the Rams 9 touchdowns to 12 turnovers during a 4-5 run.

For what it’s worth, Keenum actually did have a couple of good outings, but ultimately took too many bad sacks and turned the ball over too often. Goff will look to manage games better and the Rams will likely lean harder on Todd Gurley and their defense.

What to Expect

Schematic wise, we all know what to brace for. The Rams, at least initially, will try to run more and keep games out of the hands of Goff.

We saw during Jared Goff’s preseason highlights that he has some work to do. He doesn’t have the best sense of pressure yet, he gets happy feet and he hasn’t consistently shown an ability to progress through his reads.

Nevermind handling top shelf NFL defenses, reading different looks, changing plays or performing in the clutch.

That being said, the guy is a rookie and he wasn’t expected to be perfect right away. On paper, he still has the size, arm strength and pocket presence to develop into a fantastic NFL starter.

Betting on Rams

Banking on that all coming to form in week 11 against a Miami Dolphins team that is red hot (four straight wins) may be a reach, however.

Goff isn’t exactly being thrown into the fire here, of course. He’s had ample time to prepare, he’ll get a full week of practice as the main man and he is at home against a defense that is playing well but overall can be beaten.

Goff also has a top shelf defense and Todd Gurley at his disposal. If the Rams can run the ball, defend will and limit Goff’s decision-making process, this might not go terribly.

But we have to bet as if it will.

The Rams are just 4-5 on the year and were a poor weekly bet even with a guy in Keenum that had league experience. Even he looked like a mitigated disaster on the regular and despite that, the L.A. coaches still didn’t turn to Goff.

Perhaps they were just protecting him, but maybe he really is that far back in his development.

That may not matter immediately in week 11, though. All we need to really concern ourselves with is that the Rams aren’t a great team and they’re facing a 5-4 Miami team that really wants to get to 6-4.

Throwing a rookie quarterback under center probably won’t help that.

This game was previously a pick’em at betting sites like Bovada, but the recent news of Jared Goff taking over as the starter has all betting on that game locked. Suffice to say, Miami is going to emerge as heavy favorites this week and it will be very interesting to see what the spread and MoneyLine look like.

Of course, you can go either way with this. On one hand, the Dolphins will be licking their chops as the first defense to try to confuse the top pick.

On the other hand, Goff may not be asked to do too much, L.A. is at home and they are accustomed to grinding out close wins.

Vegas already saw this as a pick’em and we admit it could go either way, but the smart money will be on Goff not playing all that well in a loss.

That will be a bummer for Goff and the Rams, but long-term, there is upside here. That probably doesn’t make the Rams a fun bet in 2016, but starting in 2023, this could easily end up being a team on the rise if Goff can develop quickly enough.