John Wolford is basically the opposite of Jared Goff, so this should be interesting
Unless you were a fan of the short-lived Alliance of American Football league or Wake Forest football (why?), you had probably never heard of John Wolford before Jared Goff broke his thumb. The 25-year-old has never attempted a pass in an NFL game and now, with Goff unable to play Sunday, he’ll be starting at quarterback in the Rams’ most important game of the season.
The Rams need a win over the Cardinals — who could be without Kyler Murray — on Sunday to get in the playoffs, so it’s not the most ideal time for Wolford to make his debut. If I were a Rams fan, I wouldn’t be excited about the prospect of the team’s playoff fate resting in the hands of an undrafted quarterback. But as a neutral fan, I can’t deny that I now find this game far more intriguing than I would have if it was featuring a healthy Goff.
It’s not that I think Wolford will be an improvement over Goff. He almost certainly be worse. Goff is the far more talented player, especially when it comes to the act of throwing the football, which is kind of a big deal when you’re talking about quarterback play. There’s a reason why Goff was the first-overall pick in the NFL draft and Wolford didn’t even crack the top-10 of the AAF quarterback draft. But there is one advantage Wolford holds over Goff: He can move.
Now, Wolford isn’t Lamar Jackson, but he did run a 4.71 40-yard-dash and, more impressively, put up a three-cone time of 6.78, which would put him in the 94th percentile of all quarterbacks. In August, Sean Mcavy said Wolford has “some Doug Flutie-type stuff to him,” and that showed up on tape when he played in the 2019 preseason.
That mobility gives Wolford a chance when a play breaks down, something this offense has glaringly lacked at times during the Goff/McVay era. We often hear that NFL teams look for backup quarterbacks who are similar to their starters — this was supposedly the big reason why Colin Kaepernick couldn’t get a job — but Wolford and Goff are basically polar opposites. And that might be by design. Over the last two years, the Rams have prioritized bringing in athletic quarterbacks to back up Goff, including Blake Bortles a year ago and Virginia product Bryce Perkins this past offseason.
Remember: McVay did not draft Goff and he could very well prefer a more mobile quarterback. On Sunday, we’ll at least get a sneak peek at what McVay would do with one. Based on Wolford’s preseason tape, we could see some zone-read out of the Rams…
We could also see a more expansive play-action game out of the gun, which hasn’t really been a feature of the Rams offense during McVay’s tenure. When McVay wants to run play-action, he’ll do it from under center. During Wolford’s appearance against the Cowboys last August, I counted three play-action passes from the gun. Goff has thrown only 20 such passes over the last two seasons combined, per Sports Info Solutions.
I don’t want to paint the former Arizona Hotshot as a one-dimensional scrambler. Wolford has shown signs that he can at least function as a pocket passer. His accuracy and arm strength are lacking, but he can find an open receiver deeper in his progression if forced off his first read.
Inaccuracy and some happy feet do limit his ceiling as a passer, so I don’t know if it’s possible to build a gameplan that keeps him in the pocket. I’d imagine that McVay would put him on the move and keep Wolford’s reads as simple as possible, which he’s already accustomed doing for Goff.
As has typically been the case in Los Angeles, McVay won’t have much of a margin for error with his play-calling. Not with a quarterback incapable of threatening defenses all over the field. But, for one week only, the Rams will get a chance to see how this offense might look with a quarterback capable of creating for himself, even when the defense “wins” the play call.
This game isn’t going to lead to a quarterback controversy in Los Angeles. Wolford is hardly a threat to Goff’s job. But it could serve as an eye-opener to the limitations the highly-paid starter places on the offense and might convince the Rams they could do a lot better.
