Column: Goff is stuck behind Keenum and Mannion and may not get enough reps

The Face of the Franchise will be in street clothes when the Rams open their season Monday night. Jared Goff will be inactive against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Rams claim otherwise, but this is a problem. Goff says this won’t compromise his long-term prospects, but this is a setback.

The Rams mortgaged their future to move into position to draft Goff, and he’s stuck behind Case Keenum and Sean Mannion?

“He plays to play and I want him to play,” Coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’re not there yet.”

Forget about what this means now. It’s not as if anyone was counting on a 21-year-old rookie quarterback to lead the Rams to the Super Bowl.

What should concern the Rams are the long-term implications.

More specifically, this: If Goff is the team’s No. 3 quarterback, can he get the necessary work to become the franchise quarterback the Rams envision?

“I’ve never done that,” Goff said. “It is different. My whole life, I’ve been a starter.”

What Goff could use are first-team snaps. That much was evident in a shaky preseason in which he completed 22 of 49 passes. But the overwhelming majority of reps with the starters will go to Keenum.

“One of the challenges for a young player in this league is to prepare yourself to play without getting reps,” Fisher said. “They’ve all come in here from college programs where they got all the reps. Now, they find themselves in a position where you don’t get reps.”

Mannion understands.

“I went through it last year,” he said.

Mannion offered Goff a couple of pointers.

The first: If Keenum or Mannion are taking snaps, pay attention to what they’re doing.

“You can’t zone out when you’re not in there physically,” Mannion said.

The second: Stay on the field after practice is over.

“Grab a couple wideouts, grab a couple tight ends that are maybe in the same boat as you,” Mannion said. “They want the same things you do.”

A significant part of the action Goff sees could be as a member of the scout team. How useful that will be could depend on how similar the Rams’ system is to those run by their opponents.

The key is to discover the links, however subtle.

“Even though it might be a concept you don’t necessarily run often in our offense, I think you could always make it familiar to something we do run,” Mannion said. “From there, it’s reps of your footwork, reps at being accurate.”

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Gary Klein and Lindsey Thiry preview the Rams season opener against the San Francisco 49ers.

The situation is complicated by the Rams’ aspirations.

Carson Wentz, who was drafted immediately after Goff, will be starting for the Philadelphia Eagles in their opener. But this has more to do with the Eagles than it does with Wentz, who was sidelined for a significant portion of the preseason because of a rib injury.

The Eagles are in a clear rebuilding phase, with a new head coach and staff. Whom they start at quarterback won’t radically change the outcomes of their games. They might as well start Wentz and prepare themselves for the future.

The Rams, on the other hand, were 7-9 last season. A play here, a play there, and they could have finished 9-7. They have their sights set on the postseason this year and they should. They will start whomever they think offers them the best chance to win. But the longer the Rams remain in contention, the harder it could be to break in Goff.

And as a contender, the Rams don’t want to start Goff under the same conditions the Dallas Cowboys will be starting rookie Dak Prescott in Week 1. Prescott became a starter when Tony Romo went down with an injury.

About the only positive aspect of the situation is that Goff is maintaining a calm exterior.

If he is bothered by his place on the Rams depth chart, he won’t say it. If he is upset he won’t be on the active roster for the season opener Monday night, he won’t show it.

“I’m just going to be patient,” Goff said.

Goff said he was prepared for this possibility from the time the Rams worked him out before the draft.

Fisher had told him the Rams wouldn’t rush him. Fisher coached Steve McNair and Vince Young with the Titans, and didn’t start either one in their first games.

“Whenever it’s time, it’s time,” Goff said. “If it needs to happen early, it happens early. If it needs to happen later, it happens later.”

Goff is confident his career won’t be defined by how it started.

“I know there’s a plan in place and I know this is all part of it and there’s a process,” he said. “I’m just going to trust the process and know it’s going to work out.”

The Rams are hoping he’s right. They have a lot riding on him.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @dylanhernandez