Jared Goff has the NFL’s best audibles, even if no one knows what they mean

Sean McVay has taken the Rams from worst to first in the NFC West this season. And the Rams have given quarterback Jared Goff some hilarious audibles to work with in the process.

Goff was mic’d up for the Rams’ win over the Texans in Week 10, and we were left to figure out the rhyme or reason behind his audibles. There’s no immediate connection between “Elvis,” “Tupac,” “Obama,” and “Ric Flair.”

McVay said Thursday that he obviously can’t explain the detailed meaning behind the audibles, though the Rams’ opponents would be grateful if he did. But he did share some insight.

“A lot of those words are from the players, from the coaching staff. There’s a lot of people that are involved that I think you try to have fun with some of those code words and the communication,” McVay said, via Turf Show Times. “I think Jared’s done an excellent job with that, and some of them mean something; some of them don’t. Guys have fun with it.”

How can you not have fun with audibles invoking the names of Barack Obama and Ric Flair?

Using unusual audibles like this makes it easier for players to remember them. College football does this with memes and emojis on play cards on the sidelines. And plenty of teams have had fun with it at the pro level this year.

We’ve heard a “booty, booty, booty” call from Josh McCown, and the Steelers used a “dilly dilly” audible on Thursday Night Football against the Titans. Dak Prescott even called a “Shanahan” audible in Week 1 against the Giants. It was a run play, of course.

“You try to keep it relevant and make sure that whatever it is, there’s some at least association, and you try to be intentional with those things,” McVay said.

McVay issued a challenge to the media.

“Go ahead and see if you guys can decipher what all those mean,” he said. “I still don’t even know.”

Challenge accepted.

Let’s see. Elvis. Tupac. Obama. Ric Flair. If you scramble the first letters of each name, you get Forte. As in Matt Forte. Are the Rams going to bring in Matt Forte? Is that what McVay is trying to tell us?

Or maybe there’s a connection between all of these great historical figures. Tupac and Elvis were both posthumously featured in a Dutch beer commercial back in 2014. And Obama was the first American president to brew beer in the White House. White House Honey Ale was served at a presidential Super Bowl party, so there’s even an NFL connection. But it wasn’t a Dutch beer. It was more like a Belgian dubbel ale. Back to the drawing board.

Wait, perhaps this is a six degrees of Kevin Bacon situation. Let’s see. OK, Flair faced off against The Rock at WrestleMania 20. The Rock was in The Game Plan with Kyra Sedgwick, who was in the movie Pyrates with Bacon, who is also her husband.

And Elvis was in Viva Las Vegas with Ann-Margret. She was in Grumpy Old Men with Walter Matthau, and he was in JFK with Bacon.

It works for Tupac, too. Remember Poetic Justice? He was in that with Khandi Alexander. And she was in Patriots Day with Bacon.

And Obama? That’s easy. The PBS series Finding Your Roots found that Obama is Bacon’s 12th cousin, three times removed.

If Goff throws out a Bacon audible this week, then we’ll know we’ve cracked the code.