It’s time for LA Rams HC Sean McVay to give up calling plays

The responsibility of running an NFL team is tremendous. That is why the most effective leaders delegate. The limit to any system is simply how much throughput that system can handle.  And by throughput in an NFL organization, we’re talking all of the day-to-day actions that are necessary to design a game plan, prepare the players to execute the game plan, perform that game plan and adapt to what the opponent counters with. Then, sit down and assess what did and did not work.

While every NFL team does this to varying effectiveness, there is a strong bias present in any system that allows the author to be the evaluator. Whether we are too easy on ourselves, and look to assign blame elsewhere, or too hard on ourselves, and take too much responsibility for failure, that bias exists. And it’s bias, a.k.a. subjective evaluation, that can prevent an NFL team from being objective enough to truly problem solve.

Is that part of the problem with the LA Rams right now?  We’ve witnessed the same pattern now for several seasons. A team that some can argue overly invests in receivers, throws passes at times when running the football is called for, and the inability to run when the game situation demands that the Rams do so is a perennial challenge to this offense.

That is despite different players and different coaches. The lone common element has been head coach Sean Mcvay calling the plays.

That is not to say that the play calling is a major problem. But play calling is a tough job that requires a significant investment of time. Right now, should the LA Rams head coach be investing that much time in one task, when so many tasks appear to need his attention?

At some point in every head coach’s career, delegation is a must. In order to have a pulse on everything going on with the team, that HC must surrender everything. In short, there is more to running the Rams organization effectively than rewriting the offensive playbook. Performing as any manager/executive means releasing former responsibilities to allow the capacity to take on new responsibilities.  Right now, the Rams need to focus on strategically improving the roster, on better adapting at halftime to what opponents are doing, and getting a much better handle on self-scouting the team’s own tendencies while keeping an eye on future opponents.

That should fall on HC Sean McVay. But right now, he is saturated with calling plays.

The LA Rams need to improve their internal processes across the board right now. And that type of work falls to the head coach. The only way for Sean McVay to address the needs of the Rams organization is to delegate the responsibility of calling the plays. No, it’s not just for the sake of the team, but for the sake of Sean McVay as well.