CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora places Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff in third tier of NFL QBs

I meant to get to this piece from CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora when it dropped last week, but yanno. Stuff.

I find it really interesting, because JLC organized all 32 projected starting QBs into seven tiers:

1. Bona fide franchise quarterbacks
2. Top pros, proven winners
3. Rising stars
4. You can win with them
5. Guys, veterans and place holders
6. Good luck
7. The verdict is out

Now, those tiers aren’t necessarily in a direct hierarchy. I’m not sure that his seventh tier is the worst. But I like that he has a way of categorizing different QBs in different situations.

Which brings us to Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff.

Understandably, we’ve talked about him a lot this offseason so far:

• In March, Bleacher Report’s NFL1000 team ranked Goff 9th in the entire NFL.
• Early this month, I looked at the early outlook on Goff’s contract extension in light of Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan signing the first NFL contract averaging $30m per year.
• Then we had a crop of pieces looking at the Rams’ QB position as a whole. NFL Media’s Chris Wesseling gave the Rams’ QB group a ‘B’ grade. ESPN’s Mike Clay ranked them 17th in his 2018 statistical projections. And then ESPN ranked them 19th in their Confidence Index.

I’ve talked often about how this season was shaping up to be a referendum on Goff in his third professional season and that we might not really get that referendum now that the Rams have loaded up the roster for a legit Super Bowl or bust season.

That all being said, JLC drops Goff into his third tier of rising stars:

2017: Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Andrew Luck, Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, Jelly Garellysmelly (TST edit)

2018: Gatototo (TST edit #2), Prescott, Winston, Mariota, Luck, Deshaun Watson, Derek Carr, Jared Goff

Maybe I am using this as too much of a catch-all, with a quarter of all starting quarterbacks landing in this tier. But so be it. Winston and Mariota are about to exhaust their status here, as this is like the third straight year I have put them here and without a step forward, those days are over. (It’s worth noting that Mariota is the only guy from this tier who has a playoff win … and that was pretty ugly). I want to see Dak get the ball downfield more. I want to see Luck back on the field and healthy. I’d love to see Watson pick up where he left off before his injury and Carr get back to where he was before his 2016 season ended. Notice a trend here. Kudos to Goff, who was a sponge around rookie coach Sean McVay.

I think putting him in the “rising star” group is entirely fair. What might upset some Rams fans is to see Wentz up in the first tier or 49ers QB Shimmy Quantitative in this rising star group after such a small sample size though JLC had him there last year.

What do you think? Where would you put Goff? I’m seeing a pretty wide gulf between where many (most?) Rams fans are on Goff and where national analysts are. Are you ok with JLC’s slotting of Goff in the Rising Stars group? Or is he a guy you can win with? Or is the verdict still out?