On paper, the Los Angeles Rams looked like they had one of the best defenses in football last season. With Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, Dante Fowler Jr. and Cory Littleton leading the way, as well as John Johnson before he got hurt, the Rams were littered with talent on that side of the ball.
Yet, they finished the year 17th in points allowed and 13th in yards. It was an opportunistic defense that forced the ninth-most turnovers in the league, helping to set up the offense with short fields – which it frequently failed to capitalize on.
Inconsistency plagued the defense this season and ultimately may have cost Wade Phillips his job. The Rams announced Monday that Phillips won’t be back as the defensive coordinator in 2020, giving no real reason for the change.
“Coach Wade has been a veteran voice in heading our defense for the past three seasons,” Sean McVay said in a statement. “His wealth of experience, sound advice, and helpful demeanor has been invaluable to our coaches and players, and also has set an example for me as a head coach and a leader of men. I thank Coach Phillips for his numerous contributions to the Los Angeles Rams and our community, and I wish he, his wife Laurie, and the rest of the Phillips family the best.”
McVay clearly wants to go in a different direction, but why exactly is that the case? The defense wasn’t the issue in Los Angeles this season, despite its middle-of-the-road finish in points and yards allowed for the third straight year. It was the offense that regressed significantly, scoring 21 or fewer points in six games.
Yes, the defense had problems of its own – remember the Bucs, Ravens and Cowboys games where the Rams allowed a combined 144 points? – but once Jalen Ramsey and Troy Hill took over as the starting cornerbacks, the unit found its groove.
From Week 7 to Week 14, the Rams only allowed more than 17 points once. Weeks 15-17 were shaky with the Cowboys scoring 44 points, the 49ers scoring 34 and the Cardinals 24, but there was more good than bad with the defense in the second half of the season.
And looking at the numbers from Football Outsiders, the Rams were among the best defenses in the league in 2017 and 2019, according to the site’s DVOA metric. It’s essentially a stat to measure a team’s efficiency on a play-by-play basis compared to league average.
Rams defensive DVOA rank under Wade Phillips:
2017 6th
2018 17th
2019 9th— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@FO_ASchatz) January 6, 2020
So if it wasn’t a performance issue, why was Phillips let go? It likely has to do with preference – specifically, McVay’s preference.
Hiring Phillips as his first defensive coordinator was a wise move by McVay. It gave the Rams a proven defensive signal caller to handle that side of the ball while McVay found his footing on offense and as a head coach in general. Really, it was one of the smartest moves McVay could have made as a 30-year-old coach.
However, after three seasons at the helm, it seems McVay wants to change things up. He wants to be more involved on defense and put his fingerprints on that side of the ball more. That’s not something he was able to do much with Phillips.
Phillips’ scheme has mostly been the same throughout his coaching career, relying more on personnel and talent than game planning specifically for an opponent. Until Ramsey arrived, the Rams mostly played zone coverage with intermittent blitzing and the same defensive front.
Los Angeles didn’t do much to adapt on a week-to-week basis, which other defenses did to McVay and the offense. Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports is reporting that McVay wants his defense to be able to do that more, which played into Phillips’ departure.
2. From the team perspective, I think there was some frustration over relying on the fundamentals of playing sound football rather than a premium placed on scheming and changing looks to expose weaknesses. Too much reliance on just beating strength on strength.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) January 6, 2020
4. McVay not only wants to be more involved in some of the defensive conceptualizing moving forward, but he wants coaches challenging themselves to be more creative every single week based on the opponent. Be better physically in-game, but think better mentally in preparation.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) January 6, 2020
Now with Phillips out, McVay can handpick his next defensive coordinator. He can find someone who will be more willing to adapt in-game and on a weekly basis, rather than simply playing the same defense in just about every game and leaning on the players to make plays.
Don’t get it twisted: Phillips does a great job getting the most out of his best players, but his scheme has remained almost the same for his entire coaching career.
“We run obviously the 3-4 defense,” Phillips said before the Super Bowl last year. “We were the first team with the Oilers to run a full time 3-4. We’re still running a 3-4 defense. There’s little nuances and things we’ve changed. But the big thing about his defense and our defense all along was try to use the personnel you have to do what they do well.”
Bill Belichick recognized Phillips’ ability to succeed with mostly the same scheme for 30 years, pointing that out before the Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
“(Phillips has) been successful everywhere he’s been,” Belichick said, via MassLive. “He’s been doing it for 30 years in multiple organizations with multiple groups of players against every kind of offense he could see. I remember dealing with him when I (the head coach) in Cleveland. And to his credit, there’s not many of us that have a system that can last that long.
“I’ve certainly changed a lot in the last 30 years schematically. Wade really hasn’t. He really hasn’t.”
McVay and Phillips had success together and reached the pinnacle of the sport by making it to the Super Bowl a year ago. However, McVay is growing as a coach and wants more control over the defense. He’ll get that if he promotes someone from within such as Joe Barry or Aubrey Pleasant, who he’s worked with since his days with the Redskins.
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