Sean McVay's interview with former Rams Chris Long is must see

Defensive end Chris Long competed and starred for the Saint Louis Rams for eight seasons. Head Coach Sean McVay will be coaching in his eighth season for the Los Angeles Rams. And yet, they never competed on the same team. Ironically, Long faced Coach McVay's Rams in 2017, recording a quarterback sack and leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a 43-35 victory. The Eagles would go on to finish the season with a record of 13-3. The inaugural season for Coach McVay ended with a record of 11-5.

Had the Rams won that game, the team would have had the second-seed, the NFC West Division title, and earned a BYE. Would that have made a difference? I will leave that up to your What if? imagination.

So what can a player who never played for a coach talk about for a half hour? Well, do you really need a video podcast host to pose questions to get Sean McVay talking for 30 minutes? While that likely happens, Chris Long is experienced as a player and as a podcast who poses solid questions to Coach McVay, Rather than tell you what to expect, Jump into the video below, and then we will regroup and talk about some key takeaways:

Okay, what did you thin? So here are my Top 3 takeaways:

III: Aaron Donald: Complications and strategy

The stories between Long and McVay about the impact of Aaron Donald make this video worth watching alone. But when Coach McVay talked about how Aaron Donald made training camp almost impossible, because he was nearly unblockable in one on one blocking schemes. Ultimately, the Rams began to block Aaron Donald with two offensive linemen, which became a matter of some contention between Donald and McVay.

So how would McVay scheme against Aaron Donald? Well, he would start by committing either a running back or tight end to block Donald. He would wait for Donald to take his rest and then take shots downfield, and run a no-huddle offense to prevent Donald from subbing back in.

II: Best NFL defenders

Chris Long asks Coach McVay who are the NFL's best defenders who keep him up at night? McVay lists Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones. He mentions Baltimore Ravens DT Justin Madubuike as another player who had a good 2023 NFL season. On the edge, he cites San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa. He also named Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby.

I: Rams young defensive line

Long pivots to the Rams' own defensive front. The first player mentioned is second-year OLB Byron Young, who Coach McVay described as: "He's come a long way." McVay said that he had a very impressive spring.

The pair then flips to Jard Verse, a guy who both Chris Long and Coach McVay cite as a perfect complement to Byron Young. Coach McVay also squeezed in the fact that Verse and DT Braden Fiske are already showing their Seminoles' chemistry on the Rams practice field.

As far as the Rams' secondary, McVay mentions DB Darious Williams, Kamren Curl, and Quention Lake as standouts for the secondary. OF course, the proof is in the pudding. But as excited as Coach McVay seems to be about his defensive backs, you can count on some great play in the season ahead.

Not everything has to be hard facts and figures. Sometimes there is a great deal to learn just by sitting back and watching two NFL veterans talk shop.

Thanks for reading.