3 reasons Rams Sean McVay, not Doug Pederson should be NFL Coach of the Year

The NFC East and West look to have a sea-change at hand, as two teams have risen up to claim the top spots in their divisions and may not be going anywhere anytime soon. Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay has had such an impact, he should be Coach of the Year, plain and simple.

The Los Angeles Rams seemed to have hit the lottery when they pulled the trigger and hired Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay. I mean who knew that the dumpster fire that has been this newly relocated team would go from 4-12 in 2016 to NFC West leader and playoff/Super Bowl contender in one years’ time.

I mean seriously, who knew?

No one, and anyone who’s says they saw this coming on the day they hired him is lying to you.

McVay absolutely should be the 2017 NFL Coach of the Year, hands down.

The obvious reasons are just that: obvious. But in a league where the margin of error is small and shrinking each year, McVay has quickly become the template any team hiring a new coach will try to duplicate.

It won’t be easy.

The buy-in from the players, his work to turn the former #1 pick Jared Goff from bust to bonafide NFL starter, and his offense being able to go from zero to 60 should all but seal it.

Lastly, as good as the Philadelphia Eagles have been, and as good as Doug Pederson has been in coaching second year quarterback Carson Wentz, the Titanic like turnaround in Los Angeles and the dire straits McVay inherited from Jeff Fisher, make McVay the best and most logical choice.

Both franchises were quick turnarounds, but the Eagles Wentz was far more ahead, and still is despite the injury, than Goff who was all kinds of terrible in seven games last season.

LA was all kinds of terrible, too.

McVay has made them terrible no more.

It was a topic rich environment in 2016 as the Los Angeles Rams seemed to be in a race to the bottom of the NFC West and to NFL obscurity. Hard Knocks aside, then head coach Jeff Fisher seemed to lose his grasp and his team before the midway point of the season. The ridicule of a contract extension added to the confusing and dysfunctional arena LA ran in every day.

The blow out loss to Atlanta in the Coliseum was the logical, if not long coming conclusion to a campaign that began with promise, but quickly dissolved into a team that likely quit on the season before Kroenke finally cut bait on Fisher.

Enter McVay.

I mean, who knew accountability could provide such a positive bump?

But that’s an oversimplification.

McVay trusts and the the team trusts him. Where Fisher had adopted a CEO type of approach that made him more aloof, this 31 year old is engaged in his gig and what he knows best: offense.

Let’s be honest, in that McVay trusts Wade Phillips when Jared Goff and the Rams offense is on the sidelines. He trusts his special teams coach John Fassel when the offense stalls out.

It’s a dynamic Fisher ran out of long before 2016 got to November of last season.

The best thing for this organization and fans in Los Angeles is that credibility has been restored on the field. As needed as the Fisher firing was, the credibility restored by McVay and the Rams sidelines is something that only happens with this hire.

The Los Angeles Rams absolutely hit the jackpot with this head coach, and already the payoff is being felt with LA leading the NFC West heading into Week 16, the playoffs ahead, and all in his inaugural season.

Let’s make no bones about it, as Jeff Fisher was a relic and out of touch with the modern passing game, Sean McVay is not.

He gets it, and thankfully for Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff, he gets McVay.

And they all lived happily ever after.

There’s a lot more to this story, and if you watched the seven games Goff started last season, the reviews weren’t just bad, they were apocalyptic, and with fair reason.

With nine games in the books of the 2016 regular season, the Cal rookie and number #1 overall draft pick would enter and look not just lost, but completely upside down and too often shell shocked.

If he wasn’t a bust by season’s end, he was sure trending towards it.

Worse, on the other coast, optimism was sky high for the second overall pick right behind Goff. Carson Wentz looked better and was playing better, and still was until his injury, ironic enough, against the Rams in the Coliseum.

McVay has changed that.

Related Story: 3 predictions for the Rams at Titans in Week 16

The Rams, who were at the bottom of the NFL statistics ledger for too many seasons, are no longer. And Jared Goff, who was being labeled a “bust” is also no longer.

That’s all McVay. Right guy, right time.

As good as the Rams have been in 2017, 10 wins thus far good, fans should be most relieved that LA’s first year head coach solved what may have been a draft night catastrophe. He got Goff to begin playing like the top overall draft pick he was.

When all is said and done, that may be his biggest accomplishment in year one.

Let’s not forget the critical part of the story that the NFL needs the Rams to be not just relevant, but great in Los Angeles. With all due respect to the good people of St. Louis, mediocrity in the Midwest is likely a bit more acceptable than abject mediocrity in the second largest media market of LA.

Go easy Charger fan.

Yes, the Los Angeles Chargers have played well in the AFC West (7-7), but in any equation, the Rams in LA is a bigger and necessary “get” for the NFL than the bolts.

The Chargers in Los Angeles is like the Angels in Los Angeles.
Second.

In MLB, it’s the Dodgers and then the Angels.

In the NFL, it will be the Rams and then the Chargers.

Hey, it is what it is.

McVay gives the franchise the relevance required to be the team the league needs in that market. There is a certain cachet the Rams have due to their previous history that is a critical element to the LA story. McVay thus far has provided that.

Next he’ll need to keep that going.

Related Story: Why Jeff Fisher should never be a head coach again

At the end of the day, the situation in Philadelphia was far more conducive to success right now, than the one inherited by McVay in Los Angeles. The project that was Jared Goff is the single biggest validation of that theory.

Add those 10 wins being potentially 11 or 12, AND a playoff appearance, and his NOT being Coach of the Year would be a fluke.

He’s been that good.

And because of him, the Los Angeles Rams are now too.