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Rams see a fitter, faster Jared Goff as high-speed practice begins
Quarterback focused on nutrition, workouts and footwork in offseason as he aims to bounce back from a subpar year.
www.dailynews.com
THOUSAND OAKS >> Jared Goff opened training camp earlier this month with a joke.
“I may have put on a couple of pounds,” he said when asked how he feels, adding with a laugh. “I don’t know if that’s muscle or a couple of cheeseburgers.”
The Rams’ quarterback opened the padded-practice portion of camp Tuesday with the truth.
Goff spent this unusual offseason focusing on his fitness. If his body is any beefier, it’s because he hit the weights, not the barbecue. He appears leaner and quicker on his feet as a result.
“I worked out and ate right,” Goff, still listed at 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds at age 25, said in a Zoom chat with reporters after having his mobility tested on the official first day of full-speed practice.
“At the end of the day that’s really all you can do to further your body. I have a trainer, I have a nutritionist, I have the whole thing going now, and I feel really good.”
The result should make him more mobile. It’s all relative, since Goff has never been known for his ball-carrying or six-pack abs.
“I’ve been working pretty hard to be that way,” he said. “I would like to be more mobile. Up to this point, I do feel a little bit faster. Hopefully I can extend plays better than I have throughout my career.”
Add that to a narrative that’s growing in Rams camp in Thousand Oaks.
It says Goff, coming off his worst season since he was a rookie under coach Jeff Fisher, is coming up to one of his best as he enters his fourth year under coach Sean McVay and his first working with new offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell.
Goff went from eighth in the league in passer rating in the Rams’ Super Bowl season of 2018 to 22nd as they finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs in 2019.
He and the team open the 2020 season and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 13.
Expectations are nothing new for Goff, the NFL’s No. 1 overall pick in 2016. But they seem to be gaining weight again. Gym weight, not extra-cheese weight.
“(He’s) probably in the best shape of his life right now,” said tight end Tyler Higbee, who is close to Goff and says he has seen how the quarterback changed his diet. “Seeing him just moving around, throwing the rock around, his mobility is better.
“I think his leadership skills have even taken another step and being one of the sole guys in there commanding the offense. He’s just getting better every year. I don’t see anything else but him taking that next step this year.”
O’Connell said he has worked with Goff to improve his lower-body position when he throws and to maintain those fundamentals under a rush.
“To me what it’s translating to is just his natural accuracy. It’s truly something really special, and that’s what we’re working towards,” O’Connell said.
“The pleasant surprise to me is that he is moving his feet really well. He’s really spent a lot of time in the offseason getting a little bit stronger as well as getting some foot speed.”
McVay came off the practice field Tuesday singling out Goff for praise.
“I thought today he had his best day yet (at training camp),” McVay said. “Made completions, took what the defense gave him, made good decisions consistently. I thought we got in and out of the huddle the right way.
“It was on track to do things with the standards we have set, and I thought it started with his performance today.”
Fitter Goff, sharper offense. The two could go together like ketchup and mustard, or, more likely, exercise and nutrition.
NOTES
• No player looked happier with the Rams’ first day of practice in pads Tuesday than Michael Brockers, the defensive tackle whose 2019 season ended with a severe left-ankle sprain. He reported no lasting effect of the injury last December. “I’ve been going full speed every practice, no let-up. I’m having a little treatment, just old-man stuff, to keep me going,” said Brockers, 29, for whom the cancellation of official offseason workouts because of the coronavirus pandemic was a blessing in disguise. “I used that time to do more rehab, to totally get comfortable with the ankle, pushing off of it and stuff like that,” Brockers said.
• The only projected starter to miss practice Tuesday was safety Taylor Rapp. Sean McVay said Rapp has “a little knee” injury, nothing serious. Rapp was on the sideline in his jersey and shorts, a sleeve on his left leg. Linebacker Justin Lawler sat out practice and was being examined after having a foot stepped on, McVay said.
• McVay’s reaction to the first episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which premiered Aug. 11: “I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t come off as a total tool with my shirt off at my house and pool. As soon as I did that with them, I said, ‘I can’t believe I was that dumb to do that.’”
