Bubba Ventrone's advantages make him the perfect new Rams ST coordinator

The Los Angeles Rams special 2025 season was demolished by a less-than-special performance by the special teams unit. Almost as though the script was written for the Three Stooges, the bumbling, stumbling group of keystone cops contributed significantly to a performance that left as many as four winnable games in the loss column.

Changes were made mid-season, a move that head coach Sean McVay has never elected before. But the damage was done, and the team's special teams were too far gone to be salvageable. It was all mounting evidence that significant changes would be forthcoming.

Well, those changes just happened.

Bubba Ventrone was incredibly effective as the Indianapolis Colts special teams coordinator. Unfortunately, he struggled to get the Cleveland Browns special teams on track. So he arrives with a mixed bag. Still, Los Angeles loves coaches who can connect with players, and Ventrone certainly has a long-standing reputation for doing exactly that.

Rams get these added bonuses from Bubba Ventrone hire

Coach Bubba Ventrone was selected as the head coach for the American team in the 2025 Senior Bowl. That's a huge bonus for the LA Rams, a team that loves to accumulate as much intel on prospects as possible. With Ventrone, the team just hit the mother lode of inside information.

LA has some impossible decisions to make, and Ventrone's arrival was likely fast-tracked for that very reason. While punter Ethan Evans is still under contract, the team has to make vital decisions about its long snapper, placekicker, and return specialist roles.

The team signed long-time long snapper Jake McQuaide in 2025. But his contract expires. And UFL kicker Harrison Mevis, a placekicker who also signed mid-season, now faces free agency as his contract expires, too. And after getting benched with a muffed punt return, the team benched Xavier Smith. He is all-but-gone in 2026, also due to an expired contract.

Ventrone knows that he must hit the ground running, and has brought his Cleveland Browns assistant special teams coach., Kyle Hoke with him to round out the ST coaching staff.

While Browns fans seem happy to move on from Ventrone, perhaps they are focused on singular events and not the overall performance of the team's special teams. A quick survey of the Browns specialk teams performance as compared to the Rams can be viewed in the table below:

While the data can be seen as inconclusive, the truth of the matter is that the overall performance of special teams is decidedly in favor of Ventrone's unit. And the single biggest challenge for the LA's special teams, blocked field goals, was not something the Browns experienced in 2025.

Will this fix everything? Time will tell. The team signed the guy who seems to be an ideal fit with the LA culture. Clearly the guy connects with young players, and that is something this team insists upon from its coaches.

I like this hire. The team acted swiftly, and the truth is that speed was of the essence, as too many key decision points faced this team in the upcoming free agency market and draft. With the coaching staff restored, personnel execs and scouts can get right to work finding players that fit the 2026 shopping list.

Love him or hate him, the LA Rams coaching staff just made a significant hire. Fans can take heart in the fact that several well-run organizations targeted Ventrone to come aboard and run their special teams. Los Angeles gets its guy.

As always, thanks for reading.