Sean McVay was viewed as one of the best coaches in the NFL after his first season with the Rams. He helped turn around a struggling franchise, taking them to the playoffs for the first time since 2004 in his inaugural season at the helm.
He followed it up in 2018 by leading the Rams all the way to the Super Bowl, coming up just short against the Patriots. His play calling is a big reason for Los Angeles’ success, bringing a new level of creativity to the team.
His play selection has been called into question some this season, whether fairly or not. He’s always called the offensive plays for the Rams and did so with the Redskins previously, so while he’s still young, he’s gained plenty of experience in that department.
He finds it hard to imagine not calling the plays, but he’d never say never if it helped improve the football team.
“It’s hard to say,” McVay said Wednesday of whether he’d ever give up play-calling duties. “I think you’re early on in the stages of it. Certainly, I’m continuing to try and figure out what’s the best rhythm to operate with on a day-to-day basis for our football team, because ultimately that is your job, is to make sure that you have a good feel for everything that is going on and then putting your players in a position on all three phases to try to have success week in and week out. If I felt like there was a set-up where we would be a better football team, if that wasn’t the case and it enables you to do some other things, I would never say never, but those are always things that you evaluate. Right now, our focus is on the 49ers, doing a great job. When the offseason hits, whenever that is, there will be some time for us to be able to really look inward and figure out what’s going to be the best thing for the Rams moving forward.”
In the preseason, McVay let Shane Waldron call the offensive plays for the Rams. He saw it as a good opportunity to get the young coach some experience in meaningless games, which Waldron really appreciated.
Waldron is a guy who could get some looks as a head coach or offensive coordinator this offseason, but if not, perhaps he’d be someone McVay is comfortable handing the play-calling keys to in 2020.
Again, it’s unlikely, but maybe McVay wants to delegate more than he has in his first three seasons.