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Los Angeles Rams HC Sean McVay spoke to the media today at the NFL annual league meeting in Phoenix and touched on a potential extension for QB Jared Goff.
His remarks were, to be blunt, remarkable.
McVay on possible Goff extension: "Jared’s obviously extremely important to us. But those are things that, we know we want to get him done at some point. Whether it happens this year, next year, those are things we haven’t really gotten into in depth about yet."
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) March 26, 2019
Now it’s only responsible to note this is the head coach. Not the duo who is primarily responsible for contract negotiations in Rams Chief Operating Officer and Vice President Kevin Demoff and his Special Assistant Tony Pastoors and not General Manager Les Snead. So perhaps there’s a bit of incredulity to apply here, but it is worth noting how unusual this is.
Remember that the Rams signed EDGE Robert Quinn to an extension after just three seasons. And WR Tavon Austin. And most recently RB Todd Gurley. So clearly they’re open to signing their top picks to extensions before hitting Year 4, though both DL Aaron Donald and DT Michael Brockers both played through their fourth season before getting extended. LB Alec Ogletree didn’t get an extension until he was midway through his fifth season only to get traded a handful of months later. And OL Greg Robinson never did get a new deal before being traded to the Detroit Lions.
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What’s most interesting is the unknown factor of the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Goff is all but certain to have his fifth-year option applied before the May 3 deadline. That means his deal will expire after the 2020 season which is when the CBA expires as well. The last CBA completely changed the landscape for NFL contracts by limiting rookie deals severely while expanding the salary cap more than $57m per team since it was finalized. The next CBA could well change things yet again which might affect the Rams’ approach to an internal deadline to re-sign Goff.
But having inked Donald to a deal last year, Goff is now the biggest piece of unfinished business on the contractual stage where the lights are going to shine brighter this year following an appearance in Super Bowl LIII. And with so many starters departing this offseason and next, Goff is going to become even more central to the Rams’ success or lack thereof in the future.
Suffice to say, discussions of Goff’s extension aren’t going away anytime soon.