Rams secured their future in hiring Sean McVay instead of Matt Patricia

Can you imagine how different things could be if the Los Angeles Rams had hired Lions head coach Matt Patricia instead of Sean McVay?

Things could be drastically different for the Los Angeles Rams heading into their Week 13 game against the Detroit Lions. First year Lions head coach Matt Patricia had an interview with Los Angeles for the job made vacant when Jeff Fisher was fired. But instead of Patricia, LA hired Sean McVay.

And the rest is history.

The Rams play the 4-7 Lions on Sunday and the contrast couldn’t be greater. While Patricia is struggling in his first season in Detroit, McVay has Los Angeles at 10-1 and in a battle with the New Orleans Saints for home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

The Lions have seen improvements on the defensive side of the football this season, as they’ve held opponents to 22 points a game going back to the first part of October. But offensively they are averaging 21.6 points a game, and that’s a problem for a team who has what most perceive as a solid if not underachieving quarterback in Matthew Stafford.

McVay on the other hand has an explosive offense and an arsenal of weapons at his disposal. Beginning with quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley, the Rams boast a pair who routinely come up in the MVP discussion.

But beyond what you see on the field as far as team performance, Patricia has been an absolute disaster in Detroit, especially with local beat writers, which is an area McVay excels in with the cauldron that can be the Los Angeles media. Seeing Patricia at the podium reminds me of the prickly relationship Fisher often displayed in his first season back on LA.

This is the second game the Los Angeles Rams will play in 2018 where the opposing coach could have been on the LA sideline. In Week 6 Los Angeles beat Vance Joseph and the Denver Broncos who are currently sitting at 5-6. Joseph was a hot commodity as the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins in 2017, and he was a coach LA had serious interest in.

After an 11-5 season last year that earned McVay Coach Of The Year honors, and with where the Rams sit ahead of their Week 13 game against the Lions, it’s clear Los Angeles didn’t just make the best choice, but one that is already paying dividends and will for several years to come. That’s something they can’t say in Denver, and are already wondering about in Detroit.