Rams not rushing coronation for top pick Jared Goff
LOS ANGELES — As the Los Angeles Rams pivot to a new era, the franchise has made evident its level of investment in No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff.
Yet even after parting with six draft picks in a package to move up and select him, the Rams haven't handed Goff the starting position. Case Keenum will enter training camp as the first-string quarterback, coach Jeff Fisher announced Thursday at the conclusion of the team's offseason program.
"I think you play when you're ready," Goff said. "It's not up to me, and I'm just trying to come in and play as well as I can in preseason. Whatever decision they make is the right decision."
That a top pick hasn't been declared a starter by now is hardly surprising. Both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans waited until training camp last year to give the designation to Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, respectively.
Goff's ascension to the top spot might be a mere formality after he took first-team reps this week, as the journeyman Keenum is a long shot to revive a Rams passing game that ranked last in the NFL in 2015.
But it's not a point the team is conceding right now.
"Play them when they're ready," Fisher said of his philosophy behind developing young quarterbacks. "It may be the opener, it may be sometime after that. I'm not going to put him in a position to fail. I'm going to put him in a position to win."
Los Angeles fans, however, are already embracing Goff as the bridge between their beloved past teams and the new iteration of the organization.
Goff's jersey, both in current and throwback form, was ever-present at Rams All-Access, a fan gala event held Thursday at the Los Angeles Coliseum. After taking pictures with fans, he was peppered with questions on a panel with past Rams quarterbacks Jim Everett and Vince Ferragamo. He also earned top billing in a promotional video shown to the crowd, a mere sample of the spotlight he'll likely have on HBO's Hard Knocks series chronicling the franchise's offseason.
Fisher and Rams general manager Les Snead acknowledged on a separate panel that they believed finding a quarterback was a fitting shake-up alongside the Los Angeles move. Now they're waiting to see how Goff fares in training camp and preseason against a defense other than his own.
"Most rookies are thinking at this time of year, whereas if you go back to Cal he wasn't thinking -- he knew the system and was just playing," Snead told Paste BN Sports. "I think the thing that happened from the time that we drafted him to the time we wrapped up practice today, you see more and more glimpses of the those traits where you say, 'That's why we drafted him.' It's very cliched, but you have to get your central nervous system where you're not thinking and just playing."
For Goff, the one-day-at-a-time mentality is a welcome mind-set, however long it lasts.
"I'm very honored that they decided to do what they did, and I don't take it lightly at all," Goff said of the pressure that accompanied being the Rams' pick at No. 1 after the trade. "But at the same time I know I'm just one person on the team, and I have to do my part every week. I'm playing quarterback and trying not to make it more than that."
Follow Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz on Twitter @MikeMSchwartz.