Schrager’s Cheat Sheet: Why Lions QB Jared Goff is… Ron Burgundy?!

National Football League

Published Oct. 22, 2024 5:26 p.m. ET

Every week, FOX Sports NFL Insider Peter Schrager opens his notebook and opines on three of the biggest storylines around the league. Here are his takes heading into Week 8, including love for Jared Goff, Steve Spagnoulo and the Los Angeles Rams.

1. Jared Goff is… Ron Burgundy

I’ve probably seen the movie “Anchorman: Legend of Ron Burgundy” 100 times. If I’m in a funk, “Anchorman.” If I’m sick, the spot that “Price is Right” had in my routine as a kid has been replaced by “Anchorman” as an adult. Long flight? And I’m on many… “Anchorman” never fails.

And over the years, my “favorite” character has changed. I could write a 2,000-word college thesis on the comedic decisions Steve Carrell made in playing Brick Tamland. For a while there, I’d start a dinner party or golf trip with a serious face and explain how Paul Rudd’s greatest role was Brian Fantana, oddly one of his first in a long line of comedic ones in his decorated career. I could sing from the mountaintops about David Koechner’s Champ Kind, make the case for Fred Willard’s Edward “Ed” (I always love how Ed is in quotations) Harken, and think Christina Applegate’s Veronica Corningstone is the perfect character; a comedic foil played subtly with some scene stealers of her own. Even Vince Vaughn’s Wes Mantooth and Jack Black’s role as a motorcyclist are perfect scene stealers.

And yet, on the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth, five hundredth viewing — though it may be trendier or better fodder to say otherwise — I come away just blown away by Will Ferrell’s work as Ron Burgundy. It might not be revelatory or some eyebrow-raising take — but he’s the best in the film. He’s where the list of greatness — and there’s a lot — starts and ends.

So, why the 500-word vintage Bill Simmons (wannabe?) preamble on “Anchorman,” a twenty-year-old comedy, in a football column?

Because that’s how I feel about Jared Goff when watching the Detroit Lions offense. Week to week, I find myself and my friends in the media doing flips over everyone else. Last week, we got word that Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery has named the dynamic running back duo of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs “Sonic and Knuckles.” Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta are loved up as top-five talents at their respective positions. We can’t talk enough about the offensive line and the mastery of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

And Jared Goff is kind of the last one mentioned. But here we are, seven weeks into the season, and it’s Goff who’s numbers are absolutely insane and has his team — despite all the hype and all the expectations — atop the NFC standings with back-to-back big road wins. Goff finished a recent Monday Night Football game in Seattle by going a perfect 18 of 18 passing. In Week 6 in Dallas, he went 18 of 25 for 315 yards and three touchdown passes. And on Sunday, he completed 22 of 25 passes, and better yet, 13 of 15 when blitzed by Minnesota Vikings defenders. He is the only QB to have a perfect completion percentage in a half this season, and he has done it three times, per ESPN’s research team. And when the Lions needed him most on Sunday against the previously unbeaten Vikings, down 1 with about 50 yards to go in a minute, Goff stared down the barrel of a gun and did the job.

Goff will never be on the cover of “Madden” or have a remixed highlight tape breakthrough on YouTube. But he could be the most consistent and reliable — and hell, clutch — QB in the NFL this season.

We love to gush about everyone else in the cast, but after the 100th viewing, Goff still is the guy who makes it all happen.

Actor Will Ferrell starred as Ron Burgundy amid an all-star cast in the film “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”(Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)

2. Spags as an HC candidate. Why not?

There’s been no better coordinator in football the last two seasons than Steve Spagnoulo. His Chiefs defense has been stout against the run, brilliant against the pass, and as opportunistic as any unit in the sport. The Chiefs’ D also seems to save its best for the biggest moments. Spags is now 4-0, including the postseason, in his last four games versus Kyle Shanahan’s offense and Sunday’s 28-18 win over the San Francisco 49ers was a totally dominant performance. And yet, it’s not like the unit brings back the same players every year. Several guys flee for free agency every single offseason and there is absolutely no drop off. How many units could handle the loss of Willie Gay and L’Jarius Sneed to free agency in the same month and still just be … fine?

A ton of credit goes to the replacements at those positions, Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach for drafting a crop of younger players to always be ready to develop, learn, and eventually replace the departing vets. But Spags is the man behind it all working so well; the guy at the switch.

So, why hasn’t he gotten a sniff at any head coaching opportunities in the last few years?

Everyone assumes — when I suggest it, publicly and in private conversations — that he’s content in Kansas City. Well, he is happy, of course. He’s got four rings as a coordinator and is widely viewed as the best at what he does. But he also has never said he doesn’t want to be a head coach again.

He’s still just 64 and doesn’t seem to be letting up or looking to slow it down any time soon. At the very least, wouldn’t these owners and team presidents at least want to meet with him, pick his brain and see for themselves in person? This is nothing against the young Turks getting hired elsewhere — Dave Canales, Jerod Mayo and Brian Callahan all deserve their shots — but shouldn’t Spags be at least considered for some of these HC roles?

He was 10-38 in St. Louis as a head coach, but I’m not sure anyone was winning there with what was going on with the Rams during that era. Everyone from Eric Mangini to Adam Gase to Rex Ryan to whoever else has gotten another crack at being a head coach. Spags, though, can’t score an interview.

I get it. It’s also a pain in the butt waiting for Spagnuolo when his team is playing into late February every year.

But I’d like to see him get a look or two this coming offseason. And if he says no, and is happy working for Andy and eating his wife Marie’s unreal veal parmigiana on Friday nights for the rest of his career, great. But let’s not all assume he doesn’t want another crack at being the head coach. I think any competitor in an industry like his would at least like the chance to explore that opportunity.

Will Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo get a second head-coaching opportunity? (Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

3. Rams Revival

I was in the building on October 6, watching the Packers’ D stifle Matthew Stafford and hand the Rams their fourth loss of the regular season, bringing L.A.’s record to a disastrous 1-4.

Here we are two weeks later, with a less than impressive 20-12 win over the Raiders on Sunday, and it feels like the entire outlook of the Rams 2024 season has changed.

A 2-4 record is nothing to write home about, but a lot has happened in between. After much deliberation, the Rams played it safe with Cooper Kupp, sitting him out of the Raiders game, knowing they play two games in five days. Kupp got an extra week off and the defense carried the load on Sunday. While that was happening, the 49ers didn’t just lose, but they lost their star wide receiver Brandon Ayiuk for the season with an ACL injury, too. Seattle and Arizona both won in Week 7, but the NFC West as a whole looks completely wide open.

Kupp is coming back, Puka Nacua is expected to eventually return, as well, and only one team in the NFC has a Super Bowl-winning QB and HC tandem that’s brought the chip home to its city. That team is the Rams. Thursday night against the Vikings will be a great one. The Vikings come in angry, and Kevin O’Connell was Matthew Stafford’s OC when the Rams won the Lombardi back in 2021. But this one is anybody’s to win. And so is the NFC West.

Cooper Kupp’s anticipated return is one reason things are looking up for the Rams. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)

Stat of the Week

Patrick Mahomes and Peyton Manning (2015) are the only QBs in the last 30 years to throw more INT than TDs while leading their teams to a 6-0 start. The 39-year-old Manning had 7 passing TDs and 10 INT in his 6-0 start in 2015 — a season that ended in a Super Bowl 50 victory, per NFL Research Plus.

Peter Schrager is an NFL Insider for FOX Sports and a host of “Good Morning Football” on NFL Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @PSchrags.