Sean McVay admits he stole brilliant 2-point trick play from Dolphins

The Rams’ awesome two-point conversion vs. the Packers was actually a play Sean McVay stole from the Dolphins.

Sean McVay has had a lot of great play calls in his four years as the Rams’ head coach, but perhaps his best one was in the playoffs against the Green Bay Packers this past season. After Cam Akers scored on a wildcat rush, the Rams went for two in an attempt to make it a seven-point game late in the third quarter.

The call was a screen to Van Jefferson on the left side, who then flipped the ball to Akers out of the backfield for a beautiful hook-and-ladder conversion. To make that call in that spot was impressive, and the Rams pulled it off to perfection.

On this week’s episode of “Flying Coach” with Peter Schrager, a fan asked McVay for his favorite big-brain play call. He referenced this two-point conversion, admitting he stole it from the Dolphins thanks to former assistant coach Shane Waldron finding it on film.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a big-brain play but a good copy play might’ve been the two-point play that we scored against the Packers where we ended up throwing a perimeter screen to Van Jefferson and then he flipped it to Cam Akers coming out of the backfield,” he said. “Greatest coaches, greatest thieves. Stole that one from the Miami Dolphins via Shane Waldron finding it. Look out for that on the Seattle Seahawks film next year.”

Fans noticed that the play looked familiar when the Rams called it in January, immediately pointing it out on Twitter.

McVay has said it many times before that he steals plays from other teams. He uses the massive catalog of film to see what teams are calling not only in preparation for them as opponents, but also to lift plays from them for the Rams’ own benefit.

He discussed how he keeps the Rams’ offense fresh with different play calls and personnel groupings, using “the illusion of complexity” to put pressure on defenses each week. And some of that comes down to stealing plays from other teams, as well.

“I’ve referenced this before, some of the best coaches are also some of the best thieves. There’s really a lot of inventory at our disposal,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, a lot of the same things will show themselves up week in and week out, year in and year out. The illustration of what it is right before the snap just might look a little bit different, but as the snap unfolds, usually it ends up being a similar way to distribute all five eligible or block certain front structures in the run game. There’s things that we try to do. You’re always trying to put pressure on people with your tempo, your formations, your motions to really apply pressure to the defense. Want to use personnel groupings, as well, but I would say finding sound ways to attack the defense, but also make sure you’re having the illusion of complexity. So we might be running the same play, but the presentation looks different based on how we motion to it, how we create the final formation, what personnel grouping we’re doing it out of. But it’s that illusion of complexity that you see a lot of the best offenses do year in and year out, and that’s one of the things we try to stay true to, too.”

It’s refreshing to hear McVay be so open about how he comes up with some of his play calls, even if it means stealing them from other teams. As he said, some of the best coaches are the best thieves.