LA Rams suffer from too many Sean McVay offenses in the NFL right now

The NFL and more specifically, the LA Rams, welcomed Sean McVay to the ranks of head coaches in 2017. For the next two seasons, the Rams' offensive firepower behind the robust arm of then quarterback Jared Goff coupled with the unstoppable running of RB Todd Gurley were the tinder, and McVay's offensive strategy supplied the spark that lit a roaring offensive bonfire that would burn brightly for two seasons.

The Rams would trade Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions for veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The result was a win in SoFi Stadium in Super Bowl LVI. But winning Super Bowl LVI was not so much about a better offensive strategy. That victory was about playing game changing veterans to carry the team to an optimal performance.

The Rams Super Bowl winning team had All-Pro WR Cooper Kupp, WR Odell Beckham Jr. QB Matthew Stafford, LT Andrew Whitworth, and even the help of veteran RB Sony Mitchell to get the team to that point.

Wasted on the way

The LA Rams had unprecedented success up to and through Super Bowl LVI. The Rams regular season record for the first five years of McVay's tenure as head coach of the LA Rams is 55-26. So far, the Rams regular season record for 2022 and 2023 is 8-18. So what has triggered a complete opposite role reversal in the Rams success?

That of course is a very complex question that does not really avail itself an easy, definitive, or consensual solution. The problem itself avoids an answer, else why would the Rams organization have already self scouted itself, arrived at the problem and solution, and implemented corrective action already?

LA Rams offense challenges since Super Bowl LVI

1. Too many McVay clones
2. Too predictable
3. Poor draft results
4. Falling in and out of love with too many players

Too many McVay clones

To say that the NFL coaching circles have been flooded with grafts and clippings from LA Rams HC Sean McVay's coaching tree is not an overstatement. Rams head coach Sean McVay has inspired many offensive coaches to adopt his basic philosophy in terms of basic offensive principles. Purely from a head coaching perspective. McVay has personally turned out a number of successful head coaches in the NFL.

Like who? Well, here is a list of several notable coaches who once coached under Sean McVay:

1. Zac Taylor (O), Bengals
2. Matt LaFleur (O), Packers
3. Brandon Staley (D), Chargers
4. Kevin O'Connell (O), Vikings
5. Jedd Fisch, Arizona (NCAA)
6. Liam Coen, Kentucky OC (NCAA)
7. Shane Waldron (O), Seahawks

As you can see from the list above, the McVay coaching tree is growing in both the NFL and NCAA football circles as quickly as vetch. While the popularity and interest in McVay's offensive strategy has remained strong, with each new coach who finds himself running a new team or offense, they bring with them many of the McVay offensive principles.

Evolution, not revolution

In short, the diamond-rare McVay offense in 2017 and 2018 that rocked the NFL is now no longer rare. It has proliferated to the point where NFL defenses know that they will face that offense, or one very much like it, With so much familiarity, NFL defensive coordinators have learned to adapt new countermeasures. Those defenses that have continue to compete in the NFL. Those who have not were pruned, and in turn replaced by coaches from the defenses that did neutralize McVay's offense.

In other words, if McVay's offense was an infection, the NFL has developed antibodies to shut it down. While some offense that have found success in the NFL in the past had evolved to counter the defensive counter-measures, we will find why that has not exactly taken place for the Rams offense and offensive strategy:

Too predictable

When the LA Rams hired head coach Sean McVay to take over the Rams team in 2017, he replaced the basic but seasoned head coach Jeff Fisher. While the strategies of McVay and Fisher were significantly different, there can be little argument to the fact that many of the Rams players who flourished in the McVay-style offense were selected and signed to the Rams roster during Fisher's watch.

Of course, the Rams signed free agent LT Andrew Whitworth, WR Robert Woods, and drafted WR Puka Nacua in 2017 to bolster and super charge the offense to the point where it was one of the top scoring units in the NFL in both 2017 and 2018, but it's a gross error not to afford credit to the players who were already on the roster as well.

One player who was ideally suited for the Rams offense was running back Todd Gurley, whose ability to run, catch, and score touchdowns consistently truly opened up the Rams offense to its true potential. With Gurley as the single running back behind the quarterback, the Rams had the idea camoflauge to mask the offensive play. If defenses crowded the box to stop Gurley? The Rams simply outflanked them by passing the football. If defenses played back to stop the pass? The Rams simply cut Gurly loose to run the football right at them.

Rams lost interest in running the football

That ability to do what the defense was ill-prepared to stop lasted as long as Gurley was an effective runner. But Gurly struggled with knee injuries, and the Rams offense struggled as a result from 2019 and after.

Since that time, the Rams have attempted to simply throw more weight into the passing game. In 2020, the Rams ran effectively, but the slow pace of scoring points frustrated McVay. In 2021, the Rams skewed the offense into a fast-strike offense, but the wear and tear on the defense that now found itself shouldering the burden of too much Time of Possession with the opponent was not acceptable. In 2022, the walls caved in, and injuries decimated the Rams roster so horrifically that veterans were signed off the streets to man starting positions simply to get the Rams through the season.

The Rams have not found a suitable substitute for Todd Gurley's role in this offense. To be truthful, the Rams haven't searched very hard either. The success of running the football depends heavily to attempting to run the football.

Poor draft results

Sustained success in the NFL requires that any NFL team, including the LA Rams, continue to add strong young players to the talent pipeline to ensure that players who develop into solid performers and sign lucrative contracts to play elsewhere are easily replaced. The Rams 2017 NFL Draft yielded two players who are on the Rams roster today: WR Cooper Kupp and S John Jonnson III. Similarly, the 2018 NFL Draft yielded two players who are on the Rams roster now: OT Joe Noteboom and IOL Brian Allen.

But the 2019 NFL Draft was less promising, as RB Darrell Henderson Jr. is the lone player from that draft class. The 2020 NFL Draft is equally less productive, with just TE Brycen Hopkins, S Jordan Fuller, and IOL Tremayne Anchrum remaining with the team. Of the group, only Fuller is a meaningful contributor to the team this season.

Bad drafts lead to bad teams

Those two drafts, and the inability to land future starters for the LA Rams roster, created a hiccup in the team's ability to sustain success. While no draft class can be expected to yield a host of starters, the need for one or two players to become starters out of each draft class is imperative to allow the Rams front office to build around those players in future NFL drafts or the NFL Free Agency market.

While that all sounds and seems horrible, the opposite is true as well. Great drafts lead to great teams, and the LA Rams have at least five rookies from the 2023 NFL Draft who are excelling as starters this season:

1. IOL Steve Avila
2. OLB Byron Young
3. NT Kobie Turner
4. WR Puka Nacua
5. P Ethan Evans

Not only are these players demonstrative NFL starters this season, but thanks to their affordable rookie contracts that last through 2026, the Rams can loosen their purse-strings to sign game-changing free agents in the future as well.

Falling in and out of love with too many players

Perhaps one of the most concerning recent trends for the LA Rams is the way that the team appears to rapidly fall in and out of love with the players on the Rams roster. I understand the fact that circumstances can change, and a player who may not have been a fit for what the LA Rams wanted to do in the past may be ideally suited for what the Rams want to do now.

But the Rams front office is taking it all to the extreme right now. When the Rams re-signed former Rams RB Darrell Henderson Jr., the team continued an alarming practice of reuniting with players who were deemed expendable in the recent past. Such as who? In the past two seasons, the list has been somewhat extensive:

1. RB Malcolm Brown
2. DB Troy Hill
3. RB Sony Michel
4. DB John Johnson III
5. RB Darrell Henderson Jr.
6. QB John Wolford (Wolford rejected the Rams offer)

Have the Rams become too rigid?

The concern is not so much why the Rams found it necessary to reunite with former players, but the overall decision making process that drove the Rams to a decision to part with them in the first place. After all, not one of the players in the above list set the world on fire with their new teams in the interim before returning to the Rams. So that is evidence that the Rams guessed correctly, and that the players were seeking an overpriced contract to play.

But if the Rams were content to let them seek their fortunes elsewhere, why the interest in reuniting? There continues to be new talent added to the NFL each season. Both veteran and rookie players enter the NFL Free Agency market in hopes of catching on with a new team. So what is it about the Rams that compels the team to stick with the tried and true?

The overwhelming reason for the Rams to sign familiar players is the rapidity at which they can crash-course the Rams' latest playbook to contribute. But it's that familiarity that may be locking the Rams into a vicious cycle of repeating the same ole strategy that leads to nowhere. The Rams have begun to evolve once more, getting bigger offensive linemen, running backs, and more physical blocking tight ends.

After the BYE, the Rams need to harness more physicality and bake that into their offensive playbook. Unless this Rams offense changes once more, the Rams will remain too predictable to compete in postseason.