Is LA Rams coach Sean McVay too popular for his own good?

After the LA Rams earned a berth in Super Bowl 53, NFL teams scrambled to hire coaches who had any connection to Sean McVay. But was Sean McVay too popular for his own good?

The Los Angeles Rams had an incredible trajectory in the 2018 season. It was so incredible that it carried the Rams from a 2016 disappointing season record of 4-12 to a 2017 record of 11-5 to a 2018 record of 2018 record of 13-3 and a showdown with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 53.

The Rams lost the game, but with so much momentum behind them, pundits and fans expected the team to come roaring back this season to compete for the Super Bowl Championship once again.  Surprisingly, that’s not the way the story played out this year. To the contrary, the Rams finished with a 9-7 record and missed the playoffs.

One year competing for the greatest honor of the sport. The next year, players ended up watching post-season play from the comfort of their own sofas. How can we make sense of it all? While there is plenty of playboards and roster factor to flesh out in the weeks ahead, let’s begin with a more subtle element leading to the Rams’ downturn in 2019: Sean McVay Mania

Too much McVay for their own good?

The key to success in professional sports is innovation and excellence. Innovation gives organizations a significant edge by surprising opponents and creating an imbalance between your team knowing what they will do, while they continue to guess at what you will do.

The Los Angeles Rams certainly took advantage of that by innovating offensive plays. Their innovations kept opposing defenses on their heels, and allowed the Rams to dictate distance and down mismatches in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

But the tsunami of NFL coaching hires in the 2019 offseason changed all that.  In 2019, three of the first NFL head coaches hired include Matt Lefleur (head coach of Green Bay Packers), Kliff Kingsbury (head coach of Arizona Cardinals), and Freddie Kitchens (former head coach of Cleveland Browns).

So what?

Well, they all had ties to Rams head coach Sean McVay.  And POOF!, the innovation factor had suddenly become part of the NFL norm in one NFL offseason. Unique became the trend. Rare became common.  The diamond which was the Rams offensive scheming has transformed into common quartz due to multiple teams replicating the Rams designs.

Re-innovate the offense

The trouble with multiplying the Sean McVay coaching tree in other NFL teams is not just more of his system.  It’s that LeFleur, Kingsbury, and even Kitchens to an extent, have out coached McVay. LeFleur took the Rams formula and led the Green Bay Packers to a 13-3 record and a round one bye in the playoffs.   And while Kingsbury showed minimal improvements with the Arizona Cardinals in improving from 3-13 to 5-10-1, the Cardinals did show the NFL that rookie quarterback Kyler Murray is definitely an NFL worthy quarterback.

And therein lies the rub.  Both LeFleur and Kingsbury improved upon the Rams formula of strong defense, strong running game to set up surgically precise passing game.

Want to know more? Why not check out Los Angeles Rams: 15 greatest quarterbacks in franchise history

Meanwhile the Rams, with QB Jared Goff throwing for over 4,600 passing yards, and DT Aaron Donald earning his 5th All-Pro honor in six seasons, declined from 13-3 to 9-7 this past season. The cause?  The Rams did not adjust to their team capabilities quickly enough to win games, simple as that. A team content with past success is a team no longer gambling for future success. As injuries and poor offensive play began to burden the Rams, the team simply did not transition quickly enough to screens, wheel routes, and the like.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, there’s always… next season?

And so, there is always next season. But next season is now this season for the non-playoff bound Rams. So that means the fixes should already be under way. To be fair, they very likely are – in the planning stages at least.

The Rams are a very good team and are loaded with talent. The offense is steeped in scorers at the skill positions, with quarterback Jared Goff, running back Todd Gurley, tight end Tyler Higbee, and wide receivers Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, and Brandon Cooks. So the talent is abundantly there.

"“The key to success on offense is a marriage of the run and pass game” – Rams head coach Sean McVay"

The key to success is upon the creative genius of head coach Sean McVay.   He once stated that the key to success is a “marriage of the run and pass game.” (as quoted by Taylor Kolste, Riley-Kolste Football).  And that marriage creates an offense’s identity.

Tell me, who are you? ‘Cause I really wanna know!

The Rams need to re-establish their offensive identity. The running game leading to an indefensible passing attack was abandoned in 2019. That identity must be reestablished in 2020. Starting quarterback Jared Goff is talented enough to hold up the passing game for the Rams, but he definitely needs the help of play action passing downs.

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Running back Todd Gurley remains one of the most feared and versatile running backs in the NFL today.  He is the featured running back on this offense until he is… not.  If that’s the case, then the Rams can draft his apprentice from a bevy of talented running back prospects this year.  Even a young rusher from late rounds could be a significant contributor in this offense.

Few teams boast the level and depth of talent equal to the Rams. While that creates it’s own set of problems strategizing the roster within the NFL salary cap limits, it does give the Rams a much better starting point for designing offensive plays. And with that much talent on one offense, the coaching staff should be able to create mismatches all over the football field.

Should be able to is the key. Now it’s up to the front office to reload the team’s roster in the off-season. Meanwhile, the coaching staff must reformulate the playbook to restore the mismatches on the football field. That’s a pretty tall order for a team which faces the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, and rapidly improving Arizona Cardinals twice a season.

Head Coach Sean McVay took the NFL by storm in the 2016-2018 seasons. To keep his reputation, however, he must prove that he can continue to out strategize the other 31 head coaches in the NFL.  And as more and more assistant coaches migrate to the other teams, that task becomes more difficult all the time.  The time to reinnovate this team’s offense is now.