One of the concerns that’s been brought up countless times when discussing playing the NFL season during the coronavirus pandemic is the possibility of a star quarterback contracting the virus and landing on the reserve/COVID-19 list. If that were to happen in-season, it would be a significant blow for the team forced to play with a backup quarterback.
But what if the head coach or a play-caller gets the coronavirus and can’t be on the sidelines? That could be even worse for the team because simply replacing a head coach isn’t exactly an easy task.
The Rams have gone through scenarios if Sean McVay or any of his key assistants were to get the coronavirus and miss time, but the team is also taking precautions to avoid coaches from the same groups being too close together.
“It is absolutely something we’ve talked about. And you know, the natural kind of trajectory with the offense and the defense, because you have more numbers, where we’ve really had to be intentional, God forbid, if Coach (John) Bonamego or (assistant special teams coach) Tory Woodbury ended up getting sick, because you only have two guys allocated to your special teams,” McVay said on a conference call Sunday. “So, we’ve kind of had some guys that are allocated to each phase. You know you look at Kevin O’Connell and (assistant quarterbacks coach) Liam Coen, that are working closely with the quarterbacks, making sure those two are never too close to one another. So, it is a very real thing.”
The Rams are already in a difficult spot due to the amount of turnover they had on their coaching staff this offseason. They replaced Wade Phillips with first-year defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, hired Bonamego to take over for John Fassel on special teams, and brought in O’Connell to work with the offense.
They also have a new running backs coach, Thomas Brown, and other new assistants throughout the staff. Losing any of them would hurt the team as a whole, but especially if McVay were to test positive.
“I think the most important thing is, for us, to make sure that in the building, out of the building, we’re making sure that our actions are in alignment to risk mitigate as much as possible. Certain things come up, but those are scenarios,” he continued. “Now, what are the parameters around if that does come up? What can you do? I think we’ll try to make sure that we avoid it, but if it does come up, I would certainly like to stay engaged in any way possible, but I’m not going down that negative route right now. But if we had to get on this Zoom and I’m yelling through an iPhone and somebody is holding it up, you know, maybe that’ll happen. We’ve learned a lot more about technology these last couple months then I think we would have ever learned otherwise. So, I think we’d have to demonstrate some agility, no doubt about it.”
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