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Cal football: Is Jared Goff already among the top Pac-12 quarterbacks?

Where would you rank Jared Goff among Pac-12 quarterbacks right now?

By Avinash Kunnath
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Atomsareenough: Based on their work this season? I'd say he's been solidly middle of the pack, and I mean that as a huge compliment. Yes, Goff is leading the nation in passing yardage, but he's needed 168 pass attempts, and he's thrown 7 TDs to 4 INTs, with a 61.3% completion rate and 7.8 yards/attempt. Let's look over the conference:

Sean Mannion has been utterly fantastic so far. 12 TDs, 1 INT, almost as many yards as Goff, but with nearly 40 fewer attempts. He's got a 73.1% completion rate. Hundley and Mariota are potential Heisman candidates. Mariota has been phenomenal both passing and rushing, and Hundley's been really solid on both counts as well. Mariota has 7 passing TDs, 4 more rushing, no picks, and nearly 11 yards/attempt. Hundley has 5 passing TDs, 2 rushing TDs, 1 pick, and is completing over 2/3s of his passes at 10 yards/attempt. Keith Price is back. He's not throwing as much, but he's got a 77.3% completion rate and is averaging over 10 yards/attempt.

So, for now I'd rank Goff below those guys probably, and in the same tier as say, Taylor Kelly, Connor Wood, and Travis Wilson. But Goff is an 18-year-old true freshman, so I'd say that it's pretty favorable for him to be considered comparable to those older guys.

Norcalnick: Oddly, in terms of efficiency, he's in the lower half of the conference. But so early in the season, huge discrepancies in strength of schedule mess with the stats, so they aren't particularly insightful this early in the season. And how do you grade the fact that he's expected to shoulder such a huge load of the offensive production? Ben Hogan is more efficient, but he's thrown 100 fewer passes against nobodies.

I think Marcus Mariota, Brett Hundley and Keith Price are clearly ahead of him. Goff is probably in the tier below those three, alongside players like Taylor Kelly and Sean Mannion. Connor Wood and Travis Wilson both need to face tougher competition. And I'm pretty sure Goff is already better than anybody with Washington St., USC or Arizona.

But seriously. He's a true freshman.

Sam Fielder: Middle of the pack for sure. He has the most yards but is tied for 2nd for TD's, has the 2nd most INT's and has taken the most sacks by a long shot. His completion % is only good enough for 10th, so while he's lighting it up for yards, he still has a ways to go. That isn't to say that he's bad, as he is not. He's a good QB and will get better, but right now he isn't amazing, just solid. So I'd put him at 5th or 6th right now. I do think he'll be 3rd or 4th by the end of the season though.

Ruey Yen: I have not watched enough of the rest of the Pac-12 QB's at length, but I would put Goff right now in the middle of the pack with plenty of room to move up. A lot of his gaudy yardage came from the system but Goff has looked at ease running the "so simple that I can teach it to a 10 year old" offense.

Berkelium97: He's not a top-tier QB (yet), in the company of Taylor Kelly, Marcus Mariota, or Brett Hundley. Those guys are all proven winners who all demonstrated last year that they can take care of the ball, move the chains efficiently, possess a solid completion percentage, and pick up yardage on the ground.

I put him on equal footing with Keith Price, Sean Mannion, and Travis Wilson. All of them had a glaring flaw or two (mostly interceptions) last season but appear to be much improved this season. They're off to great starts, but will they continue to perform at this level? That is unclear. The same question could be asked of Goff: he's off to a brilliant start, but can he maintain this level of play all season? Considering Goff has accounted for 1300 of the team's 1667 yards despite playing two top-20 teams, Cal fans should be very excited about the future of Goff. We'll see if he keeps the ball moving against Oregon.

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