Jared Goff’s regression in 2019 was the result of a lot of factors, specifically poor blocking from his offensive line, a lack of help from the running game and inaccurate throws by the quarterback himself. He was especially bad on play-action, which was a huge surprise, and his deep passing took a major step backwards.
Despite having Brandin Cooks as a downfield threat, Goff really struggled to connect on deep passes last season. He and Cooks never seemed to get on the same page and the result was not only a lack of completions, but also far fewer deep-pass attempts than usual.
Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks by deep-passing performance and Goff checked in at No. 21. According to PFF’s numbers, he had a completion rate of just 30.4%, averaged 9.7 yards per attempt and had a passer rating of 44.0 on deep passes.
Only Drew Brees and Jimmy Garoppolo (and Bridgewater if we move the sample size low enough) threw deep at a lower rate than Goff. Despite 662 dropbacks, Goff took a shot deep just 56 times (8.9%) and scored only one touchdown on those plays, despite having plenty to work with in terms of receiving talent. In his defense, it wasn’t all Goff, as the Rams had one of the worst offensive lines in football, and Goff often just didn’t have the time to let deep plays develop.
Goff was above average on deep passes in 2018, but he was nowhere near the median line last year. That’s made abundantly evident on the following passing charts from Next Gen Stats.
Goff barely connected on deep passes in the middle of the field and down the right sideline, posting passer ratings of 14.6 and 32.0, respectively.
Cooks is now out of the picture, which would seem to hurt Goff’s deep-passing game. But with Josh Reynolds potentially stepping in as the third receiver, he and Goff could develop a connection. Reynolds’ catch radius is bigger than Cooks’ and although he doesn’t have the speed that Cooks does, Reynolds is a long strider who can still get behind defenders.
Creating big plays is a key part of the Rams’ offense, and Goff will need to improve in that area next season in order to take pressure off of Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods on underneath and intermediate passes.