The Los Angeles Rams made several major changes to their coaching staff this offseason, bringing in three new faces to fill the coordinator jobs on offense, defense and special teams.
On Wednesday, Sean McVay introduced offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, defensive coordinator Brandon Staley and special teams coordinator John Bonamego at a press conference, fielding questions from reporters in attendance.
He and the coordinators were asked about potential changes coming schematically, roles of the new coaches and what sold McVay on them as candidates for the jobs.
Here are six things we learned from the press conference.
Rams will stay in base 3-4 scheme
One of the biggest questions when the Rams replaced Wade Phillips with Staley was whether they’d switch to a 4-3 front. Staley coached a 3-4 defense under Vic Fangio in Chicago and Denver, and that will seemingly continue in 2020.
Staley said there will be a lot of carryover from last year’s Rams defense, indicating that their base scheme will remain a 3-4.
“A lot of it’s predicated on the players, but structurally, our system – from a personnel standpoint – there will be a lot of carryover,” Staley said. “With Vic, we’ve been a 3-4 structure, but we’ve played a lot of different groupings. As an offense or a defense, you’ve got to have a framework of where you’re guys are going to meet, so I think that’s going to be the comforting thing for our players. They’re going to be performing a lot of the same jobs, a lot of the same roles. There’s none of those wholesale changes that happen other places.”