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.

Who Is John Bonamego?

The first step is to make some introductions.  John Bonamego is NOT a millennial, but rather is a baby boomer coach born on August 14, 1963.  Bonamego has a long and storied career in football.
While he earned plenty of recognition in collegiate coaching, his forte’ in the NFL is special teams. He was assistant special teams coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 1999-2001, where he was the understudy to legendary NFL special teams coach Frank Gans. He took over Gans in 2002, where the special teams unit ranked third best in the NFL.

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He then took on the Special Teams Coordinator role for the Green Bay Packers, serving from 2003 to 2005. In 2004, his unit made four game-winning field goals, the most by any team since the NFL-AFL merger.

He then took over in 2006 for the New Orleans Saints as special teams coordinator, where he helped the Saints in their post-Katrina era.

His next career stop occurred with the Miami Dolphins, where he served as their special team coordinator from 2008 through 2011.  At Miami, Bonamego was instrumental in developing young talented players, culminating in Ted Ginn Jr.’s two return touchdowns in a single game.

He later returned to the New Orleans Saints as assistant special teams coach, the team which finished the season 13-3. He followed that by returning to the Jacksonville Jaguars as their special team coordinator.  There, he helped develop rookie punter Bryan Anger set an NFL record punting average of 47.8 gross yards per punt and 40.8 net yards per punt.

He then took the special team coordinator role with the Detroit Lions from 2013 through 2014. Once more, he coached a young player to lead the league.  On this occasion, he helped Lions’ punter Sam Martin to lead the NFL in punting average for two seasons, with 40.4 and 40.1 yards per punt respectively.  Now? He’s coming off a rather impressive stint with the Detroit Lions.

Bonamego’s impact on 2020 LA Rams

So now let’s look at how John Bonamego will impact the LA Rams in 2020. In a word? WOW! Improvements will likely show up across the board. Reviewing the Football Outsiders’ special teams ranking for 2019, the Detroit Lions scored better than the LA Rams in virtually all categories.

Those categories include overall special teams impact, field goal/extra point rank, kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return, hidden points (intangible effect of special team play), weather, and overall value-added effect. That seems to be a very comprehensive list. But do Football Outsiders know what they’re talking about?

Just to test their ranking, I pulled the LA Rams overall special team ranking for 2016 through 2019.  Here are those results:

2016 – ranked 3rd
2017–  ranked 2nd
2018 – ranked 18th
2019 – ranked 26th

That ranking aligns almost perfectly with everything I’ve known about the Rams special teams over the past four seasons.  So that seems to check out 100 percent.

Typically coaching changes most dramatically and positive impact occurs within the first two seasons.  That is most likely due to the team learning new techniques, strategies, and philosophy while still retaining the best of the previous coaching staff.

LA Rams will win close games again

The play of NFL special teams makes a huge difference in the outcome of games.  If football outsider’s indices are anywhere close to the actual impact of the Rams poor special teams play in 2019, the Rams surrendered an average of 6.5 points per game last year.

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Imagine what the 9-7 Rams might have done last season by improving their point differential by 6.5 points per game?  Well, we know that the Rams lost to the Seattle Seahawks in 2019 by a score of 30-29, and missed the game-winning field goal.   That game alone would have launched the Rams into the playoffs.  The Rams lost later in the season to the San Francisco 49ers, this time by succumbing to a game-winning field goal as time ran out, 34-31.  Win just those two games in 2019, and the 11-5 Rams would have ended the season on an entirely different note, despite the offensive line injuries.

That is the power of good play on special teams.  That is the difference that John Bonamego will make on the LA Rams future.

Bonamego’s hiring may not be good news for Rams’ veteran kicker Greg Zuerlein.  Bonamego’s wheelhouse is coaching young kickers up.  The timing of his hiring by the Rams suggests the team is ready to explore new options at the kicker position. The three-year deal for Zuerlein which expired in 2019 may be the last contract for him.

Punter Johnny Hekker is signed through 2023. Still, there are salary cap savings there for the Rams to explore with competition at the punter position.  And with Bonemago onboard, you can bet the Rams day three draft will bring at least one linebacker and one tight end to the team, simply for special teams play.

Bonamego is a solid and future-looking hire by the LA Rams. He will immediately impact a trouble spot for the team in 2020.  With better performance from special teams, the Rams are beginning to turn the corner more and more towards a positive direction.