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Would Jon Gruden take Rams' coaching job? Don't forget his 'QB camp' love for Jared Goff
What would an offseason be — we’re going on eight years now — without a juicy Jon Gruden rumor?
The latest is that the Los Angeles Rams are very interested in throwing a boatload of money at Gruden to come coach their team, and that Gruden might be willing to listen to their overtures.
Consider these fully loaded caveats:
1. We don’t yet believe Gruden will leave his cushy TV gig to return to coaching.
2. Not everything Gruden says on his famous “QB Camp” show should be taken at face value.
With that being said, it’s worth at least going back to watch Gruden sit down before the 2016 NFL draft (and before the Rams traded up for the first pick) to hear what the coach had to say about Cal QB Jared Goff. After all, if Gruden would consider the Rams’ job he’d have to be completely on board with the player in whom the Rams invested so much to trade up for and draft.
The entire episode is worth a watch, but short of you doing that, here are some of the highlights, including some fascinating ones that take on new light considering everything that has happened to Goff and the Rams this season.
Goff arrived at Cal, and the place was a mess. He was recruited by Jeff Tedford, who then was fired and replaced with Sonny Dykes — two completely different offensive systems. Goff stuck with his commitment and was pegged to commandeer the full rebuild in Berkeley. It was a whale of a job for an 18-year-old freshman. The Bears were 1-11 his true freshman season, and Goff took a pounding behind a bad offensive line and a system that left him vulnerable often.
Now Goff sits as an unproven commodity for a Rams team that has gone in the tank. Jeff Fisher has been fired as coach, and John Fassel knows he’s no more than a placeholder as interim coach. Someone will take this job and (likely) instill a completely new offense. After a 3-1 start this season, the Rams have dropped nine of their past 10 and Goff and the rest of the offense are struggling behind bad blocking. And that means if they lose their final two games, the Rams will have closed out their season 1-11 down the stretch.
Gruden mentions off the top that Goff should embrace the struggle he went through early at Cal, as it likely will help prepare him for his inevitable rebuild wherever he lands in the NFL.
“If there’s one thing I want you to write down,” Gruden says, “it’s this: 1-11. I want you to keep that with you forever. I think it’s going to push you through some of the dark times. Someone is going to draft you early. And you know why they’re picking early? Because they’re probably 1-11. They’re probably going through a similar type of situation that you were in at Cal.”
Yes, the Rams’ rebuild certainly has some Cal-like aspects to it. Smart guy, that Gruden.
Goff admits with Gruden because, well, he has to; it’s his show. But the QB understood then what he might need to understand now: that this struggle of a rookie season with the Rams could help prepare him for what lies ahead, just as his freshman did for him at Cal.
A lot of this is cliché. It’s TV, and Gruden has heaped praise on pretty much everyone he’s had on his show the past seven years. This is a man who once compared Johnny Manziel to Steve Young.
Still, Gruden said in another forum that he “would want [Goff] if I were still coaching” and appeared impressed with his toughness and smarts.
“This kid will run through a brick wall to win a game,” Gruden said. “He’s tough, he’s smart, and he’ll shred you.
“When you look at the physical abuse he took, to keep coming back from that … that’s the kind of guy I am looking for.”
Goff’s toughness hasn’t been questioned in his five games since earning the starting job. But the protection the Rams have provided most certainly has. In each of the past four games, he was sacked three or more times and taken several big hits, including one last Thursday against the Seattle Seahawks that knocked him out of the game and landed Goff in the concussion protocol.
The Rams have to invest not only in better talent up front (plus receivers who can separate better) but also in a system that will help limit some of these QB hits.
The abuse Goff took at Cal was at the center of the Goff episode, namely how the “Bear Raid” offense used a lot of five-man protections and “RPOs” (run-pass options) that asked Goff to make tough throws while hanging tough against fierce rushes. At one point, Gruden changes RPO to his own acronym — “ridiculous protection offense.”
But even with that, Goff made a throw that had Gruden — even by his hyperbolic measure — freaking out.
“This is the throw of the year to me,” Gruden said, almost leaping out of his chair. “This might be the throw of the year in college football.”
The play, which Cal ran a lot last season, was an RPO — its name was “Trips Left Stretch Left 357 All.” Basically, Goff reads the front, the linebacker and the safety in that order. If it’s a five-man box, he’s handing the ball off for a stretch to the left; if the linebacker bites hard on the run, Goff is pulling it out for a pass; and depending on what the safety does, Goff is picking his target: either a slant to the slot receiver, a five- or seven-step post to the other two trips-left receivers or a post on the backside in the play’s three-by-one formation.
Goff chose the backside seven-step post after the safety rotates to the middle of the field in cover-3 (three-deep coverage) and Gruden loses it.
“I haven’t seen a college seam post since 1997. Nobody does this,” he said. “Bro, you can’t throw seam posts with no blocking. But you just did. That’s the greatest throw in the history of throws. It really is!
“We’re going to pull the ball out of a man’s stomach [on the run fake] and throw the ball with no blocking while falling backwards for a gain of 20.”
Even if Gruden’s enthusiasm for Goff’s performance is overplayed for the cameras, what becomes clear is that Gruden believes Goff needs help from his blocking and that in the right scheme he can thrive. After Goff throws a game-sealing interception on the same pass play against heavy pressure, Gruden questions Goff’s decision but also suggests that the scheme’s protection was unrealistic.
The verdict: “If Goff gets protection, he’s proven what he can do,” Gruden said. “He can shred you. If he gets with the right people that know how to teach him protection, he’ll learn it.”
Would Gruden be part of that “right people” he mentions? We don’t know, and it could take a lot to pry him loose from a contract that makes Gruden ESPN’s highest-paid talent on a deal that runs through 2021. But it appears that Gruden thinks Goff could thrive if he gets the right scheme in place, and the former coach — now eight years removed from an NFL sideline — seems to have an idea where that starts.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
