OWINGS MILLS, Md. – A year ago at this time, entering their preseason opener, the chore for Rams then-rookie head coach Sean McVay was pretty simple: Get Jared Goff as many reps as humanly possible to immerse him in this offense, rebuild his confidence and make him forget about his shaky rookie season.

Now, well, the situation is quite different.

Goff had a strong 2017 season – just the latest young quarterback to blossom under McVay's tutelage and play calling – and he appears at ease in this offense as the Rams have suddenly gone from playoff afterthoughts to potential Super Bowl hopefuls with a reloaded roster and heavy expectations. And it just so happens that one of the few roster spots not teaming with experience and depth is at backup quarterback, where the assembled group of three passers behind Goff have combined for 50 career NFL attempts, one start, and zero touchdowns. It's not exactly teaming with options should Goff miss a few games, and McVay is now charged with protecting Goff through the preseason – where he undoubtedly will end up playing less than last summer – and cultivating something from the group of backups (Sean Mannion, Brandon Allen and Luis Perez) in case of emergency.

McVay and his staff are going over that mental calculus this week, with their joint practices with Baltimore over at the Ravens' practice facility and the preseason opener at M&T Bank Stadium looming Thursday night. With Goff now established in this offense, the days of him taking expanded reps with the second-string offensive line are probably over, while Mannion (a fourth-year pro who has accounted for all 50 of those NFL pass attempts I mentioned) is now an injury away from trying to prop up a team with Super Bowl aspirations

"The thing that is tricky, especially with some of the starters is," McVay told me, "when you are talking about a guy like (left tackle) Andrew Whitworth, who is going into year 13, now if you don't play him then how comfortable do you feel with putting Jared out there? So it's a lot of layers to it, to where when you want to rest somebody else then it affects how you operate …

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"I'm really having a tough time – and we've talked about this as a staff – at how do you balance the dynamic between getting those preseason reps, and then, what the risk that potential could come from if something happens. And you can't do that – you can't be scared – but you also want to be smart and mindful of, those couple snaps, does it make a difference in how sharp he can be and can you try to mimic and emulate those game-like situations and limit the risk? And those are things that, I'll be honest, I struggle with and continue to learn. And as you get more experience you maybe have a more clear-cut philosophy."

Bottom line, I don't think we'll see much of Goff this summer. The Rams starters as a whole will likely be rested for this preseason opener, and Mannion – who threw for 185 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions in his lone NFL start (a loss to San Francisco last season) – will have a chance to gain some confidence this time around. For a team that collected this much talent, I continue to wonder if the Rams might be prompted to acquire a more experienced and proven No. 2 quarterback at some point based on how the preseason goes (one team official didn't exactly rule out that possibility, noting how in the past the backup job here has been manned by guys like Nick Foles and Case Keenum, who went on to great starting success elsewhere).

"I think he's really taken a lot of steps in the right direction," McVay said of Mannion.

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