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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_10dec867-6349-5e01-b1fb-06dd8befd506.html
- By Jim Thomas St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- May 14, 2016
During the predraft process, longtime college and NFL coach Ted Tollner helped quarterbacks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz get ready for the pro game. His son, Ryan Tollner, is their agent.
One day, long before the NFL Scouting Combine, Ted wasn’t available to guide the highly-touted prospects through their workout. So the Tollners called an old friend to take over for that day: Mike Martz.
On a field in Orange County, Calif., about an hour north of Martz’s home in San Diego, the former Rams coach put Goff and Wentz through the paces.
“I spent about two hours working them out, and spent about an hour with them in the classroom,” Martz said.
He came away highly impressed with the quarterbacks, who ended up going first and second overall in the NFL draft last month.
“Carson Wentz, I’ve never seen anybody throw the ball like that,” Martz said. “Ever. I’ve never seen that kind of arm strength on anybody, and still be able to throw a touch ball and all those things. And he was just a sponge to everything you said.”
Wentz, who went No. 2 overall to Philadelphia out of North Dakota State, had some problems dropping back from center according to Martz. Martz recalled making one correction with Wentz, and Wentz picked it up right away.
“Which shocked me,” Martz said. “It was like talking to Kurt (Warner) when Kurt first came in. He just wanted to get better.”
As for Goff, Martz said the California-Berkeley product “was a little bit more stoic and quiet. But he was really good on the deep ball, I remember that part.”
After the workout and classroom session, Martz looked at tape of Goff and Wentz on his own. What impressed Martz about Goff was his ability to stand firm in the pocket under pressure, absorb a hit, and keep firing away.
“He’s pretty special,” Martz said. “He has what Kurt had, and I hadn’t seen anybody like that necessarily for a long time. He will stand in there and make throws under duress like I haven’t seen anybody else do since Kurt, really.”
When Martz returned to St. Louis as offensive coordinator prior to the ‘99 season following a two-year stint in Washington, then Rams head coach Dick Vermeil asked him to take a look at Warner’s NFL Europe tape with the Amsterdam Admirals.
Martz came away amazed at how Warner took a beating, but unfazed, continued to stand tall in the pocket.
Martz said Goff showed enough mobility to extend plays as well.
“Now he made some bad plays, but the (good) plays that he made are plays that only an elite player can make,” Martz said. “I think he could be just ‘stupid’ good. He gets rid of the ball so quick.”
Looking at tape of Wentz, Martz said the speed of the game in the NFL will be an adjustment after playing in college at the FCS (or Div. I-AA) level. Martz also thinks Wentz showed a tendency to leave the pocket too soon.
“He’s gonna have to stand in there and make throws,” Martz said. “(The Eagles) have to really put their thumb on him about that. He can win with his legs on some plays, like a Russell Wilson kind of deal. But he can’t turn down throws in order to run it.”
Martz’s work with quarterbacks in the NFL basically is beyond reproach. Warner came from nowhere to league MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and Pro Football Hall of Fame candidate. Marc Bulger, who entered the league as a sixth-round draft pick by New Orleans in 2000, blossomed into a two-time Pro Bowler in St. Louis.
Martz even squeezed back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons out of Jon Kitna as Detroit’s offensive coordinator in 2006 and ‘07.
With that track record in mind, his assessment of Goff and Wentz carries some weight.
“I think they’re both franchise quarterbacks,” Martz said. “I’d be amazed if these two guys don’t have terrific careers. They’re of the quality where you can build a whole franchise around them.”
As for the Rams trading six picks to Tennessee as part of the trade up to No. 1 overall from No. 15, Martz said, “They did the right thing to move up to get Goff, I can tell you that.”
Conversely, Martz was surprised that Cleveland traded out of the No. 2 spot (with Philadelphia), thus backing away from Wentz. While realizing the Browns are building and picked up a bunch of extra draft picks, Martz said you just can’t pass on a chance at a franchise QB.
“Because they do not come along very often,” Martz said. “These two guys are very special, and for Cleveland to hop out of it — I don’t care how many good players they have if they don’t have a quarterback. When’s the last good quarterback they’ve had?”
The Browns did draft Southern California quarterback Cody Kessler in the third round, and Martz thinks Kessler has starter’s potential. But he doesn’t think he’s in the class of Goff or Wentz.
