Jared Goff's story is fascinating in that when he has any success, people connected with that success are perceived as geniuses because Goff is perceived to be such a terrible QB.
To recap:
Goff as a rookie had Rob Boras as his offensive coordinator. Boras began calling plays for the first time in the final game of the previous season after Jeff Fisher fired Frank Cignetti Jr. (former Cal OC) as OC.
Goff looked absolutely terrible under Rob Boras. His QB coach, Chris Weinke, only had 1 year of NFL experience under his belt.
Goff was a bust, or so the narrative goes.
Sean McVay realized that Goff was surrounded by inexperienced people and surrounded him with experience: Matt LaFleur at OC and Greg Olson, who had been QB coaching since before Goff was born, as QB coach.
The result: Goff looked really good.
After the 2017 season, LaFleur was hired away by the Titans and Jon Gruden hired away Olson, whom he with at the Bucs.
In 2018, for Goff's second season, assistant WR coach Zac Taylor was promoted to QB coach, while nobody had the title of "offensive coordinator." (Shane Waldron, now the Seahawks OC, was "passing game coordinator.)
Goff looked so good during the 2018 season.
So good that by December, Zac Taylor -- again, who was *assistant* WR coach the season before -- was already being talked about as head coaching material. (Months later, the Bengals hired Taylor as their head coach.)
(An interesting note: Andy Benoit, the Sports Illustrated writer who wrote the article above, now works for McVay.)
In 2020, Goff's offensive coordinator was Kevin O'Connell, now head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, Goff wasn't good that year. (The Rams didn't have an official "offensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019.) (O'Connell was hired after the Rams' Super Bowl victory.
In 2021, Goff ended up at the Detroit Lions.
At the Lions, Goff had Anthony Lynn as his offensive coordinator. Lynn's previous playcalling experience was for the 2016 Buffalo Bills, taking over when offensive coordinator Greg Roman was fired early in the season.
Under Anthony Lynn, Goff sucked.
(Dan Campbell also hired another inexperienced person, former NFL QB Mark Brunell, who had been out of the league for a decade and had been coaching high school football the year before, as Goff's QB coach. Campbell and Brunell were teammates in the NFL.)
Lynn was fired near the end of the season.
TE coach Ben Johnson, who had no playcalling experience, was promoted to offensive coordinator. And Goff thrived under Johnson.
Because Goff and the Lions offense look good under Johnson, Johnson is now considered head coaching material.
From The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/26/nfl-coaching-candidates-ben-johnson-demeco-ryans/
