Turf Show Times
This is not the stat that Jared Goff or the Lions wanted to see on Sunday: The former Rams number one overall pick has never won an NFL game without Sean McVay or Ben Johnson calling plays for him. He’s 0-19-1 in those situations.
When a team drafts a quarterback with the number one overall pick and then fires the head coach after one season or less together — a common outcome for those bad teams — they will do anything in their power to avoid admitting that the pick is a bust. That often means hiring an offensive-minded play caller as the new head coach, which is exactly what the Rams did when they fired Jeff Fisher partway through Goff’s rookie season and then hired McVay a couple of months later.
Then in 2021, the Rams admitted defeat, it just took a few years.
They traded Goff to the Lions, and then some time later Detroit made one of their best coaching changes in team history by promoting Ben Johnson to full-time offensive coordinator. Over three seasons together, Johnson and Goff thrived and achieved greater statistical highs than even Goff’s best days with McVay…albeit not with a Super Bowl appearance like what he did with L.A. in 2018.
Now cut to the first week of 2025, Johnson is the head coach of the Chicago Bears, and you have to wonder if he’s in the same situation with Caleb Williams that McVay once found himself in with Goff:
Yeah, maybe you can find a way to make this work. But if these situations are anything like what the L.A. Rams found themselves in with Goff after a few years under McVay, the end result could be admitting that the pick is simply a bad one.
The Rams acquired Matthew Stafford — an undeniable veteran talent when he was traded — and immediately won a Super Bowl. L.A. managed to make this move even though Goff’s 2019 contract extension had yet to even kick in!
Ben Johnson is the head coach and offensive coordinator that the Bears want for years to come, probably even more than they want to see Caleb Williams become the franchise quarterback that he was billed to be a couple of years ago when he won the Heisman at USC. How many teams could try to copy the Rams by choosing play caller over an overhyped quarterback?
It’s obviously still very early in Caleb’s career and he could soon look like one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL. But what if he doesn’t?
There seems to be a lot wrong with Caleb’s...
