LA Rams hire new Special Teams Coordinator John Bonamego

The LA Rams are finally filling their vacant Special Teams Coordinator role with a solid hire of former Detroit ST coach John Bonamego

The LA Rams are bringing in their last major coaching hire, new Special Teams Coordinator John Bonamego. While the team will continue to fill additional staff positions, assistant coaching roles, and the like, this completes the major hires for the team in preparation for the 2020 NFL season.

Bonamego is a veteran coach in the NFL, and he coached the Detroit Lions special teams to a ranking of eighth-best in the NFL according to Football Outsiders’ final ranking for 2019.  That same ranking placed the LA Rams on 23rd, so it seems logical that the Rams have made an upgrade in the two transactions.

The curious aspect of this hire is not why the Rams are hiring Bonamego, but rather why the  Detroit Lions dismissed him after just one season.  From the number of firings at the end of 2019, the Lions focused on wholesale changes to their defense, and Bonamego was simply collateral damage from the housecleaning. Additionally, per NFL.com’s Nick Shook, Bonamego’s special teams unit struggled with penalties in 2019. That should be correctable, particularly in light of starting off with a clean slate with a new team.

That all means great news for the Rams, whose special teams had plummeted in 2019 after many years performing among the best of the NFL.

Now that the Rams have a full complement of coordinators, the real task of preparing for next season can get underway.