In announcing his decision to enter the 2016 NFL Draft, Cal junior Jared Goff now officially stands as the draft’s top quarterback prospect.
2016 NFL Draft: What makes Jared Goff the best QB in the draft
The Golden Bears quarterback has officially gone pro, and should be appealing to several teams at the top of the draft.
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Now it’s a matter of waiting until the first round starts on April 28 to see how high Goff will get picked. Considering his skill and the teams picking at the top of the draft, Goff is potentially a top-five pick.
Of course, that will lead Goff to being compared to quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, the top two picks in the 2015 draft. Comparatively, he’s a tier below those two. From a playing standpoint, Goff is much more comparable to quarterbacks like Teddy Bridgewater of the Vikings and Matt Ryan of the Falcons.
At 6’4 and 215 pounds, he’s tall and has good athleticism, but he’s not physically imposing. He’s not the kind of quarterback who will launch 60-yard passes or roll over defenders like Cam Newton. Instead, Goff is clinical. He’s a cerebral quarterback who will pick apart teams with his plus ball placement and ability to read a defense.
Goff finished his final season at Cal completing 64.5 percent of his passes for 4,719 yards, 43 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His career totals of 12,200 yards, 96 touchdowns and 30 interceptions are impressive. Most impressively, he was the leader of a Cal team that went from being 1-11 in 2013 to 8-5 with a bowl win this season.
That end was a high point of his college career. Against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl, he threw for 467 yards and six touchdowns. In doing so, he set the Pac-12 record for passing yards in a season. He did it with throws like these, which were typical throughout his college career:
Just another drop in the bucket for Jared #Goff https://t.co/jc7c7EUKx5
— Rob Rang (@RobRang) December 29, 2015 With Goff, NFL scouts will be heavily reviewing the tape from his game against Utah earlier this season. It’s arguably Goff’s worst game ever, one in which he threw five interceptions. When they do look into those five interceptions, they’ll find that Goff wasn’t totally at fault for them all.
The first one went through wide receiver Kenny Lawler’s hands and the second came on a slant where Lawler got beat on his route by Utah’s cornerback. The third interception can be put on Goff for throwing a bad pass in the face of pressure. Later in the game Goff forced a pass into traffic that was intercepted, the second one that was truly on him. The final interception was on a tipped pass that was picked off by a diving linebacker. The numbers are bad, but the facts aren’t. Goff still threw for 340 yards in the game, including this sizzling on-point touchdown:
Still, that is a gaudy interception number that will turn some off. It’s the type of number that will cause debates about Goff and Paxton Lynch of Memphis, the draft’s second-best quarterback. In comparing the two, Lynch is bigger, has a better arm and is more athletic. But Goff gets the nod because of his pocket awareness, footwork and advanced ability to read a defense, before and after the snap.
Those traits will make Goff attractive at the top of the draft. The Cleveland Browns, who currently have the second pick, may not have seen a large enough sample size of Johnny Manziel on the field to keep him as the starting quarterback. The San Francisco 49ers, current holders of the fifth pick, are Goff’s hometown team. After benching former starter Colin Kaepernick in favor of Blaine Gabbert, the 49ers could be in the market to draft a quarterback high. There’s also the Dallas Cowboys, whose season turned into a disaster when starter Tony Romo got injured. A player like Goff could be brought in as Romo’s backup and eventually replace the 35-year-old quarterback.
The need for quarterbacks early in the draft is there. Goff is the sort of player who can fill it, and become a very good quarterback in the NFL.
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