Will LA Rams coach defections hinder team going forward?

Even as the LA Rams are preparing to face the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, there is that inevitable concern. After the Rams have played their final game of the season, other NFL teams help themselves to the coaching staff. Hoping to graft a coach from the LA Rams organization into their own organization, they want to infuse a bit of the LA Rams winning culture.

Each year, it seems, the LA Rams get more with less. And that seems to prompt other teams to pull key coaches and executives from the team in the hopes of finding ways to get more with less in their franchises as well.  One year ago, the LA Rams lost seven coaches and executives to other NFL teams.

Now that the 2021 NFL regular season has dwindled down to one final game, what do we know about this team? Are they tough enough to win in Super Bowl LVI? Has the team managed to endure very austere financial times? Has the need to become younger, and less costly, hurt the team’s chances?

Change is inevitable

But the question that lingers from the off-season, a question that never truly found a satisfactory answer, is this: Have the LA Rams positional coach defection hindered the chances of this team to win a Super Bowl? Or has the depletion of coaching talent begun to show up in players who are less prepared? Have the LA Rams taken a step back anywhere?

This year, we already are aware that the Rams will likely lose offensive Kevin O’Connell, who is already earmarked to take over as the new head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Close behind, we know that secondary coach Ejiro Evero is rumored to be all but signed to take over as the new defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos. That’s two key coaches already outbound. Concerned yet?

Some teams face changes that are forced upon them. The Denver Broncos are in the process of reconstructing their entire coaching staff.  Their fans are eager to embrace those changes, because it may mean a better chance of success. But for the fans of the LA Rams, a team with success, chance opens the door to a chance for less success as well.

Winners attract winners

Before we cause any panic attacks, we need to remind everyone that the NFL is nicknamed Not For Long for a reason. Change is inevitable. Each year, the team restocks the roster. Former players sign elsewhere. New players are signed. Young players are drafted. NFL teams grow in a way that is very similar to molting. Old ways must be shed to embrace new methods.

Still, the tone, the culture, the creation of basic principles by which the coaching staff, and ultimately the team, are built upon will always rely on the head coach. For the LA Rams, that means head coach Sean McVay. It’s his vision. His personality. Ultimately, it’s his coaching staff. And for each coach who is hired on from his staff to promotion to coach elsewhere, two or more coaches are eager to sign one with the Rams organization. The Rams are winners, and winners attract winners.

After Super Bowl LVI, we’ll quickly learn who is on their way to bigger and better roles.  We’d already named five coaches who may not be back with the team in 2022. From what we’ve seen already, we may have been a bit too conservative in our estimates.

But we’ve learned in the 2021 NFL season that change is not something to fear. It simply forces us to be patient and withhold judgment. The LA Rams are in Super Bowl LVI, so clearly, this team, this organization, is doing something right.  As we’ve learned, sometimes looking towards veteran coaches who have already made a name for themselves in the NFL is not always the answer. Sometimes the key is to sign up the next NFL innovative thinker who will set new and higher standards for the NFL in the future.

And the only way to do that is to warmly embrace the necessary changes along the way.