Earlier in the off-season we detailed Jared Goff’s rookie struggles as the third most pressured quarterback in the NFL in 2016 – exploring the idea that his ineptitude was an effect of the offense’s systemic inefficiency rather than the cause.

Pro Football Focus offered even more context regarding the uphill battle that Goff faced by calculating and ranking the most pressured QBs on third down last season, revealing Goff to be at the top of that list.

Jared Goff faced an unsustainable amount of pressure on third downs last year pic.twitter.com/yyTEhe5cLk — Pro Football Focus (@PFF) July 10, 2017

Many of Goff’s critics believe that the former No. 1 overall pick should have been able to step in and improve the Rams’ stunningly bad offense when he first took the field in Week 11. That is unfair on the surface, let alone when you really dig deeper into the pre-existing dysfunction of the receiving corp and the offensive line.

For comparison’s sake, here are the QBs who faced the lowest pressure percentage on third down last season:

These QBs saw the least amount of pressure on 3rd downs pic.twitter.com/ukgxj5y2Co — Pro Football Focus (@PFF) July 10, 2017

Three of those four teams made it to the postseason, which is far from a coincidence. Successfully and consistently converting on third down is a critical aspect of any offense that has playoff hopes, so the fact that Goff was under pressure on a whopping 55% of the time is unacceptable.

Luckily, that statistic is almost guaranteed to improve. The Rams made the offensive line a priority this off-season, dropping Greg Robinson and adding veterans Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan to join the reliable Roger Saffold. If Todd Gurley can craft a resurgence this season, and with even marginal improvement in the receiving game, Goff will have far fewer excuses in his sophomore season.