Will Jared Goff be the opening day starter for the Los Angeles Rams?
"He may start on Monday night," Fisher said of the Rams' Monday Night Football opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, California. "That's the goal. We understand the environment, believe me. He does. We've had lengthy conversations. If I had concerns about whether Jared could handle this, I wouldn't be talking about Jared right now. He can handle it."
It might seem like an obvious question. The Rams gave up a small fortune to move from No. 15 to the top of the draft for a player they've deemed their missing piece both privately and publicly. However, with the Eagles already planning to sit Carson Wentz for a season behind Sam Bradford and the Rams tendering Case Keenum at the first-round level, there could have been an argument made for easing Goff into the rotation a little bit like the Jaguars did with Blake Bortles.
Goff's readiness was cited by plenty of draft analysts as the reason he edged out Wentz for the No. 1 pick. There are still plenty of people who believe Wentz will be the better player eventually, but there was little doubt that Goff was a more polished product.
Fisher's best-guess proclamation sets the stage for a very interesting Week One matchup against a Chip Kelly team playing for the first time under their unique new head coach.
Goff shouldn't be too nervous, either. Over the last 10 years, there were five quarterbacks taken No. 1 overall who started their season opener. None of them won the game, and only Cam Newton and Sam Bradford played reasonably well.
» Matthew Stafford: 16 of 37 (43.24 percent) 205 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, 45-27 loss to New Orleans Saints.
» Sam Bradford: 32 of 55 (58.18 percent) 253 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions, 17-13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
» Cam Newton: 24 of 37 (64.86 percent)422 yards, two touchsowns, one interception, 28-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
» Andrew Luck: 23 of 45 (51.11 percent) 309 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions, 41-21 loss to the Chicago Bears.
» Jameis Winston: 16 of 33 (48.48 percent) 210 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, 42-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
In fact, no quarterback taken No. 1 overall starting his first game has won since 2002 (h/t to the great NFL.com editor and cool stat lover Max Meyer for the heads up). That was when NFL Media's David Carr and the Houston Texans beat the Dallas Cowboys, 19-10. Carr went 10 of 22 for 145 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
