Sean McVay’s handling of Rams’ QB situation raises some questions

After a week of mystery surrounding the Rams’ starting quarterback, it was John Wolford who ran onto the field for the first snap of Saturday’s game against the Seahawks, earning the start over Jared Goff.

Sean McVay spent all of last week giving vague updates on the quarterback situation, saying Goff was making progress, feeling good and doing everything the Rams asked of him in practice. McVay also made it clear that he wasn’t going to publicly name a starter before kickoff – and he kept his word.

But McVay knew who he was going to start against the Seahawks early in the week. He just didn’t want to tell the media and give his opponent an advantage, knowing who the Rams would be starting.

“I made it last week. I think it’s a real credit to our players. I told the team early in the week,” McVay said after the game. “I thought it was the right decision just based on Jared coming back from an injury. He had thumb surgery and there were some limitations with when he was even going to be able to take a snap. As soon as we started our preparation this week, I announced it to the team and I think it’s pretty good that it stayed in house.”

With Goff only 12 days removed from undergoing thumb surgery, McVay opted to go with the healthier quarterback despite the fact that Wolford has never scored an NFL touchdown and played his first career game last week against the Cardinals. It wasn’t a shocking decision, but the coach’s handling of the entire situation is a bit puzzling and raises a few questions.

(AP Photo/Scott Eklund)

The first (and biggest) question coming out of the game relates to McVay’s decision to only have two quarterbacks active.

If Goff was healthy enough to be Wolford’s backup and the only other active quarterback, why wasn’t he healthy enough to start? Goff played 58 snaps and although his thumb did seem to bother him at times, it wasn’t bad enough to keep him off the field.

McVay knew Goff would be one snap away from being thrown into the game if Wolford were to get hurt, yet he still made Blake Bortles inactive, leaving Goff as the only other option behind Wolford.

“If Jared’s thumb was not able to respond the way that it did this week, [Bortles] would’ve been our No. 2,” McVay said. “But it’s been great having Blake around. His presence, his experience and really just being around him, he’s one of those guys that’s hard not to like. That was just a coach’s decision just having two quarterbacks up.”

McVay admitted after the game that “there were a couple of limitations as you guys saw, which was what led to the decision to go with John,” but again, if he knew Goff was going to be limited by his thumb, why was Bortles not active in case of emergency?

And then there’s the question about deciding on a starter so early in the week.

After Goff underwent surgery on Dec. 28, McVay said “he actually should be available for the playoffs.” Obviously, he didn’t know for sure what Goff’s timetable would be, but all reports early on were that Goff would be ready for the playoffs – with it even being reported before the game against the Cardinals that Goff would likely be back for wild-card weekend.

Yet, McVay apparently saw enough from Goff early in the week to determine that he wouldn’t be healthy enough to start on Saturday? If Goff was making progress, why wouldn’t he at least give his quarterback a shot to prove he could start and play an entire game? There is a benefit to telling the team early in the week who would start, but it sure seems like McVay simply thought Wolford gave the Rams a better chance to win – regardless of how healthy Goff might possibly be on Saturday.

Goff said definitively after the win that his thumb wasn’t causing him any pain, he made no excuses for his play and said definitively to open his press conference, “My thumb is fine.”

“It’s coming along. It’s not 100% because it had surgery 10 days ago or 12 days ago or whatever, but it’s in a good place. I’m very capable with what I have going on right now,” he said. “There’s no pain to be honest. There’s no pain. It’s got screws in it and it’s a little bit swollen but the pain is not the issue.”

(AP Photo/Scott Eklund)

Based on everything we now know, it seems pretty obvious that McVay was encouraged enough by Wolford in Week 17 to determine that he would be the Rams’ best option against the Seahawks in the wild-card round. He gave Goff no chance to prove in practice that he should be the starter, considering he made the determination to start Wolford early in the week.

So now the question becomes, if Wolford is healthy enough to play next weekend, will he once again get the start in the divisional round? Goff isn’t 100% healthy right now, but another week of healing should put him in a better spot than he was on Saturday.

And considering he played 58 snaps, threw for 155 yards and a touchdown, and still came out of the game saying “there’s no pain,” it’s hard to imagine Goff not being ready to play in the divisional round.

Now we’ll find out which quarterback McVay really prefers, assuming Wolford is healthy enough to play next weekend. Here’s what he said after the game when asked who will start in the next round if Wolford is healthy.

“We’re working through all this stuff,” McVay said. “Jared did a great job today. He’s our quarterback. A lot of that is going to be predicated on how does Jared’s thumb check out, how does he feel, what are those limitations moving forward. If Jared continues to progress, you feel good about that, but as you guys saw, it’s a shame for John to have gotten hurt. I’m really happy, I’m pleased with what Jared did today, but John was getting into a rhythm. I thought he was seeing the field really well. I’m really mad at myself for calling that stupid play that left him susceptible to getting injured.”

While Goff is the Rams’ quarterback, it’s hard to ignore the “but” that McVay threw in there. He wanted to see Wolford play the whole game. He thought Wolford was finding a groove. He clearly thought he gave the Rams the best chance to win, and if healthy, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Wolford get the nod again next week.