LA Rams hire Coen, promote Brown, filling coaching vacancies goes on

The LA Rams are hiring a new offensive coordinator. But in a bit of a mild surprise, the candidate was a member of the team’s coaching staff in 2020, and then left to take over as the offensive coordinator for the University of Kentucky. Does that career track seem odd to you? If it does, well, get used to it. It seems as though NFL teams are making use of NCAA football programs to aid in the development of positional coaches.

The Baltimore Ravens had just done a similar exchange of seeding a defensive coach Mike Macdonald with the University of Michigan for one year, only to hire him back as their new defensive coordinator this season.

Coen was a member of Sean McVay’s staff for three seasons, from 2018 through 2020. During that time, he was an assistant wide receivers coach from 2018 to 2019 and was an assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020. During that time, he was an integral member of the coaching staff.  But he is a young coach, and his book of NFL coaching business is a bit thin.

After Coen left the LA Rams staff to become the University of Kentucky’s offensive coordinator, he has been effectively interned for the role amidst the Rams coaching staff. He has spent a year transforming a very run-dependant offense into a far more balanced attack. Now, that experience and his familiarity with the Rams players appear to have made him the ideal candidate to become the Rams offensive coordinator.

The hire indicates that the likelihood of McVay surrendering offensive play-calling duties is, at best, extremely remote. And while this hire could lead to big things for the Rams, Coen’s one year with the Kentucky Wildcats’ offense was unfinished. He ended up elevating Kentucky’s offense from 115th in the NCAA in 2022 to 45th overall in 2021. While that is certainly impressive and positive, the impact was of short duration. But here is another take on his one-year with Kentucky

Of course, the Rams have a number of offensive positional coaches that need to be filled. While the Rams are reportedly bringing back Greg Olson, the report does not cite a positional role for him. Right now, I’d venture a guess that the Rams would most likely slide Olson in as their Tight End coach, and allow him to aid in the design of the Rams rushing attack.

That is due to the fact that the Rams want to involve RB Coach Thomas Brown more in the design and execution of their passing offense as well.

Are you keeping track of all of the LA Rams coaching changes?  Never fear. After this all settles down, we will do a summary recap to get everyone up to date. As always, filling the coordinator roles is the first, and most important, step with resetting the coaching staff. Stay tuned.