Jared Goff showed he has the talent to shake off his rookie struggles

Your rookie season is the toughest of your NFL career, and it starts before you’re even drafted.

I finished my last college game in El Paso for the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve and went directly into NFL combine training. I showed up right outside of Nashville on Jan. 2, ready to go.

After the combine I had to train for my pro day, which I did at Oregon. Then came the tiniest of breaks until the NFL draft. The draft was the last weekend in April, and I got picked by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round. The following Thursday, I was on a flight to Charlotte for minicamp and the offseason program.

There are four weeks between the end of the offseason program and the start of training camp. I spent those four weeks getting ready for camp. Then a month of camp, and then a 17-week (at least) season. The first mental and physical break I got from football since the previous camp in college was early January a year and a half later.

Time to exhale.

Mentally, you’re in a new city away from family and friends. You’re learning the locker room dynamics and trying to make friends. Then you have to learn the playbook. And not just learn the plays, but learn the “why” of the plays. Learning a playbook is different for each position, and vastly more complex than in college. You also need to figure out your weekly schedule: When do meetings start? When can I schedule some body work? When are weigh-ins? (Only a fat guy like myself would need to worry about that last one).

Physically, you’re now going against the best of the best. You must prepare your body for the grind of a season that you have never experienced. At some point, your body will be tired. It will feel dead. You are always sore and tired. That is the rookie wall.

It falls into the mental category, but it deserves its own discussion. I was a seventh round draft pick. I was not expected to play. I lived on the practice squad my first season. I felt pressure every day to not screw up at practice or I might be gone. There’s the pressure of trying to fit in to your position room. We had a ton of veterans. They treated me outstandingly well from the start, but you better not have a thin skin.

However, the pressure I felt to do my job is nowhere near what it must feel like to be a first-round pick.

I wasn’t supposed to play. First-round picks are typically Day 1 starters. They are expected to handle all those things mentioned above, and then perform at the highest levels on Sundays. Yes, they are allowed to make “rookie mistakes,” but those are only tolerated for so long. I’ll never know what that pressure feels like. I just know it can crush young players who aren’t ready for it.

Goff wasn’t just drafted by the Rams No. 1 overall. The Rams also gave the Titans a bounty of picks for the right to draft him. He was expected to play right away and change the fortunes of a franchise. However, like any rookie, he had to deal with everything above.

Most importantly for Goff, he had to learn the playbook. In college, he was in shotgun close to 100 percent of the time. Now he had to learn to take a snap from under center, how to call an entire play in the huddle, what formation adjustments are needed at the line, and more. Once he got that down, there was still the matter of surveying defenses and throwing accurately. Set Hut!

It takes a freaking tough man to do all that. Some guys just aren’t ready. The Rams apparently believed that as well. Goff started the season on the bench before finally starting the Rams’ last two games. However, it looks like he may finally be getting a handle on his rookie season.

Goff’s first game at home in the rain against the Dolphins went poorly. He went just 17-for-31 passing for 134 yards. He left plenty of room for improvement. Then in his second start last weekend in New Orleans, Goff showed his potential. He finished the game 20 for 32 for 214 yards, three touchdowns (all in the first half), and one interception.

Goff put beautiful touch on his first touchdown pass.

Goff reads that pressure is coming, stays calm in the pocket, and lays in a nice ball to Tavon Austin for a touchdown. This is a throw he made often in college. Putting some air and touch under a ball is what he does well.

Goff also engineered a two-minute drive to end the first half, which doesn’t surprise me at all because he played in a no-huddle, air raid offense in college. The Rams offense went 79 yards in eight plays, capped by Goff hitting Lance Kendricks for a touchdown.

It’s good to see Goff throw throwing right on time. When Kendricks sat down in between the corner and safety, the ball was right on him.

This is simple, but just being able to step up in a pocket and find an outlet impresses me. Lots of quarterbacks stand like statues in the pocket and have zero awareness of where their outlets are.

And lastly, standing in the pocket and knowing you’re about to get nailed, and still delivering a good ball is always a positive.

All in all, Goff had a positive second outing. Did he throw some bad balls? Sure. Did he throw a bad pick? Yep. He stared down the tight end and the Saints read it well. And The second half was a cluster of sacks and penalties.

But these mistakes are correctable. Goff showed that he has the arm strength and touch to eventually be a franchise quarterback. He’s got a long way to go, but all rookies do. It’s clear that Goff has the talent to shake off his first-year struggles.