Rams will be patient, but Jared Goff likely to start sooner than later

10:35 PM ET

LOS ANGELES — The best-laid plans of NFL teams can change at the drop of a hat. Or, perhaps in the case of the Los Angeles Rams, at the cost of a move from No. 15 to No. 1 in the 2016 draft.

Soon after making their move up the draft board, the Rams’ biggest decision was whether to take Cal quarterback Jared Goff or North Dakota State signal-caller Carson Wentz. Now, the biggest question facing Goff and the Rams isn’t who but when.

As in when will Goff take over as starting quarterback for a team that finished at the bottom of the league in most major passing categories a year ago?

History shows there’s not necessarily a right or wrong approach to throwing a top pick into fire. More often than not, such choices have proved dependent almost solely on the individual.

Jared Goff says learning the Rams’ playbook is like learning Spanish, and he wants to be fluent before he takes the field. AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Rams coach Jeff Fisher knows a thing or two about handling such situations. The then-Houston Oilers drafted Steve McNair, the best quarterback Fisher ever coached, with the third pick in 1995. McNair promptly went to the bench, making only brief cameos before taking over full time as the starter in 1997.

“Steve did play under center his junior year in a pro-style system and then got in the shotgun his senior year,” Fisher said. “We were very patient with him and he was asked numerous times, ‘When are you going to play?’ and it’s the same thing that Jared said, ‘When the coaches say I’m ready for it.’ I think we handled it well. We’re not going to follow that same model because he’s got a different skill set than Steve.”

The model the Rams will follow is more likely one taken from a page in general manager Les Snead’s history. As one of the key personnel evaluators for the Atlanta Falcons, Snead was part of the group that drafted quarterback Matt Ryan in 2008. The Falcons insisted Chris Redman would be their starter until Ryan was …

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