The Rams have hired Greg Williams to coach their inside linebackers and Rob Calabrese as an offensive assistant
Sean McVay has been busy filling out his coaching staff all offseason after losing several assistants to other teams and on Tuesday, the team announced two more hires. The Rams have brought in Greg Williams to coach their inside linebackers and Rob Calabrese as an offensive assistant.
The Rams interviewed Williams a couple of weeks ago but his hiring wasn’t official until now. He joins the Rams after being the Packers’ pass game coordinator in 2023 and the Cardinals’ cornerbacks coach from 2019-2022.
Calabrese spent the last three years as the Jets’ quarterbacks coach, working on Robert Saleh’s staff in New York. He most recently worked with Aaron Rodgers and Zach Wilson during the 2023 season, though Rodgers’ campaign ended after only a few snaps due to a torn Achilles.
In total, the Rams have seven new members on McVay’s coaching staff, as well as two coaches who have been promoted to different roles for 2024.
The Rams are filling out their coaching staff, hiring Chili Davis as their new assistant special teams coach
The Los Angeles Rams have lost several coaches this offseason, which is an annual tradition for Sean McVay’s staff. Among them was Jeremy Springer, the Rams’ assistant special teams coordinator. He left to become the Patriots’ special teams coordinator, opening up a spot in Chase Blackburn’s group in Los Angeles.
The Rams have filled the role of assistant special teams coach by hiring former Kansas State special teams quality control coach Chili Davis. The news was first reported by Matt Zenitz of 247Sports, and it’s been confirmed in Davis’ bio on Twitter where he wrote “Assistant ST @RamsNFL”.
The Los Angeles #Rams are expected to hire Kansas State’s Chili Davis as an assistant special teams coach, sources tell @247sports.
Before Kansas State, Davis was special teams coordinator at Florida A&M and worked at places like University of Washington.… pic.twitter.com/TR3plHzgXa
Last year was Davis’ first season with Kansas State after being Florida A&M’s special teams coordinator in 2022. Prior to that, he also had stints with Washington and New Mexico State.
The Rams have finalized their 2022 coaching staff, making 8 new hires and 6 promotions
The NFL draft and OTAs are right around the corner, but the Rams hadn’t yet announced their full coaching staff for next season until now. The Rams finalized Sean McVay’s staff on Wednesday, making their eight new hires and six internal promotions/role changes official.
We’ve broken down the full staff below, separating it out by new hires, promotions and coaches who are returning to their same roles. There are a lot of new faces and people in new places entering 2022, but that was necessary and expected after the Rams lost the likes of Kevin O’Connell, Ejiro Evero and Wes Phillips, among others.
Along with Ejiro Evero, two Rams assistants are leaving to join the Broncos’ coaching staff
Now that the Los Angeles Rams’ season has come to an end, the departures from their coaching staff have begun. In addition to Kevin O’Connell being hired as the Vikings’ head coach, three other assistants are already leaving the Rams’ staff.
Ejiro Evero has been hired as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, joining new head coach Nathaniel Hacket in Denver. He was the Rams’ secondary coach/pass game coordinator this past season and had spent five years in L.A.
Assistant special teams coach Dwayne Stukes is joining the Broncos, as well, becoming their new special teams coordinator – a nice promotion for him after one season with the Rams.
The third coach leaving is Marcus Dixon, who will be the Broncos’ defensive line coach. He spent one season as the Rams’ assistant D-line coach.
The Rams have suffered some big losses on their coaching staff and in the front office this offseason.
It’s only February but the Los Angeles Rams have already suffered some major losses this offseason. Thus far, Sean McVay has lost seven assistant coaches and Les Snead has seen two key members of the front office depart for other opportunities elsewhere.
It’s a massive number of departures for a team that didn’t change its head coach or general manager, leaving a lot of voids for the team to fill. The biggest losses were Brandon Staley and Brad Holmes, who went on to head-coaching and general manager jobs, respectively.
Below is the full list of the nine coaches and assistants who have left the Rams this offseason.
The Rams have lost five assistant coaches this year alone, which will lead to major changes.
There’s a running joke in the NFL that teams are hiring anyone and everyone who has come in contact with Sean McVay at some point. It stems from the frequency with which the rest of the league comes flocking to the Rams’ coaching staff to hire assistants who have worked under the NFL’s youngest head coach.
First, it was Matt LaFleur and Zac Taylor, then it was Brandon Staley – all of whom went on to head-coaching jobs with other teams. But it goes beyond just head coaches. Teams are scouring McVay’s staff and hiring them as assistants.
This season alone, the Rams have lost five coaches to other teams. Here they are, along with their previous job in L.A. and their new position elsewhere.
DC Brandon Staley: Hired as Chargers’ head coach
LBs coach Joe Barry: Hired as Chargers’ defensive passing game coordinator/LBs coach
CBs coach Aubrey Pleasant: Hired as Lions’ secondary coach
Passing game coordinator Shane Waldron: Hired as Seahawks’ offensive coordinator
Assistant QBs coach Liam Coen: Hired as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator
The Rams have only filled one of those voids so far, hiring Raheem Morris to replace Staley as the defensive coordinator. The other positions have yet to be addressed, and though it’s still early in the offseason, it’s not easy having to fill five jobs in a matter of weeks.
It’s the second year in a row they’ve gone through a great deal of turnover, too. Last offseason, they moved on from defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, lost special teams coordinator John Fassel to the Cowboys, let running backs coach Skip Peete go and hired Kevin O’Connell as their offensive coordinator. Staley thrived as Phillips’ replacement, as did Thomas Jones with the running backs, but John Bonamego’s stint as the special teams coordinator lasted only one season; the Rams hired Joe DeCamillis to replace him this offseason.
They survived those changes and went on to finish 10-6, earning a playoff berth and win over the Seahawks in the wild-card round. Given McVay’s ability to identify talent, there’s no reason to believe the Rams can’t overcome these latest losses, too.
It’s just not the situation McVay would prefer to have happen, even as happy as it makes him to see his assistants advance their careers as coaches in the NFL.
Raheem Morris will be the Rams’ third defensive coordinator in as many seasons.
[jwplayer 6SIYyw3k-ThvAeFxT]
The Los Angeles Rams were dealt a major blow to their defense just days after Saturday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, losing defensive coordinator Brandon Staley to the Chargers. He was hired as their head coach, a move that has just about everyone except Rams fans loved.
Sean McVay wasted no time finding Staley’s replacement, though. On Thursday, just before the Chargers introduced Staley as their head coach, the Rams announced they have agreed to terms with Raheem Morris as their new defensive coordinator.
While many expected McVay to stay in-house and promote someone such as Aubrey Pleasant, Ejiro Evero or Eric Henderson, he once again looked outside the walls of the team’s headquarters in Thousand Oaks and landed on Morris. He’s no stranger to McVay, either. The two spent time on the same coaching staff in Tampa Bay and Washington and have built a strong connection over the years.
Replacing Staley will certainly be difficult, but Morris is more than capable of carrying the torch and maintaining a high level of play from this defense. It’s hard not to like the Rams’ decision to hire Morris, given his track record, relationship with McVay and leadership skills.
As a former head coach of the Buccaneers and interim coach in Atlanta, Morris is more than capable of leading a defense. Here’s what Julio Jones said of Morris’ leadership style back in October.
“It’s [the] small things but it’s huge,” Jones said. “You have to be perfect right then and there.”
Morris is a bit proponent of accountability. When he took over as the Falcons’ interim coach, his leadership style was immediately apparent, holding players accountable for how they performed in practice and on Sundays.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Matt Ryan, either, who said this after the Falcons won their first game under Morris.
“I think he challenged us to hold everyone accountable as best we can and then made it real clear for us what our responsibility as an offense is was to go score and get it in the end zone,” Ryan said. “We were better with that today. We need to be better with that as we move forward.”
(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Morris helped turn around what was a disastrous Falcons team in the first quarter of the season. Atlanta started 0-5 in its first five games, giving up at least 30 points four times. Then Morris took over and the Falcons finished 5-6 in their last 11 contests.
Morris earned an interview for the full-time head-coaching job, but Atlanta opted to go with an offensive mind in Arthur Smith. But the way Morris rallied his players and pushed them to finish strong didn’t go unnoticed.
Though Morris will be in charge of the defense, he coached Atlanta’s wide receivers for four seasons from 2016-2019. That experience on the offensive side of the ball brings value when it comes to game planning against opposing teams, something McVay pointed out in his statement after Morris was hired.
“Not only is Raheem a great communicator, he is also an excellent teacher,” McVay said. “Raheem’s background coaching both offense and defense gives him a unique perspective which allows him to see the field from a 22-man perspective.”
Where there should be little to no drop-off is in the secondary. Morris is a former defensive backs coach and a college safety himself, so he has a long history of coaching players in the secondary.
And with his experience in both Cover 2 and Cover 3 systems under Jon Gruden and Quinn, Morris should be able to adapt and utilize multiple schemes in Los Angeles. With a blitz-heavy defense and plenty of man coverage to come, the aggressiveness on defense will remain unchanged for the Rams.
This was a strong hire by McVay, bringing in not only someone he’s familiar with, but a coach who has a perspective on both sides of the ball. And if Ramsey is excited about the hire, why shouldn’t fans be, too?
It’s too soon to know exactly what the Rams’ defensive scheme will be next season, but there are a lot of reasons to like this hire by McVay.
Brandon Staley is pulling Joe Barry from the Rams, bringing him to his Chargers coaching staff.
It was fully expected that after Brandon Staley was hired as the Chargers’ head coach, he would sift through the Rams’ coaching staff for candidates to add to his own staff. After being blocked from interviewing offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, Staley moved on to Joe Barry.
According to Tom Pelissero, Staley and the Chargers are expected to hire Barry as their defensive pass game coordinator and linebackers coach. Barry has been with the Rams since 2017, which is when Sean McVay brought him over from Washington where the two worked together.
New #Chargers coach Brandon Staley is bringing along at least one assistant from the #Rams — Joe Barry is expected to join Staley as defensive passing game coordinator and linebackers coach, sources tell me and @RapSheet.
Barry is highly regarded within the Rams organization, getting a chance to interview for the defensive coordinator vacancy last year before Staley landed the job. He’s been a coach for two decades so experience is certainly on his side.
The Rams are looking for their own defensive coordinator after Staley left for the Chargers, but it’s unclear if Barry interviewed for the job this offseason as he did last year.
With Staley assembling his staff, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he hires another assistant or two from the Rams’ coaching staff at some point.
The Rams are in good hands thanks to Sean McVay and Brandon Staley.
When the Los Angeles Rams announced they would not be retaining Wade Phillips this offseason, it came as a surprise. After three mostly solid seasons running the defense, Phillips was suddenly on the outside looking in, being replaced by a coach who had never been a defensive coordinator before.
Sean McVay indicated that he wanted to take a more hands-on approach with the defense, and by hiring 37-year-old Brandon Staley, he’s able to do just that. In fact, Staley has been referred to as the “Sean McVay of the defense,” bringing creative schemes and a brilliant football mind to that side of the ball.
Both McVay and Staley were recognized for their play calling recently at Touchdown Wire, with each coach being selected as one of the best play-callers on their respective side of the ball.
Sean McVay certainly deserves credit for what he does in the passing game, but I want to take a moment to highlight what he does on the ground. McVay is tremendous at manipulating numbers in the running game, as well as creating advantageous angles for his blockers up front.
Don’t sleep on what McVay is doing on the ground. His designs do a great job of, as Bill Walsh termed it, reducing the variables.
As for Staley, he’s completely changed the Rams defense. L.A. uses light boxes (six or fewer defenders in the box) more than any other team in the NFL. They don’t often have two inside linebackers on the field together, relying on nickel and dime packages throughout each game.
That wasn’t the case with Phillips’ scheme from 2017-2019, and while Staley has had a full year of Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald together, you could argue Phillips’ defenses had more talent overall.
When Sean McVay decided to replace Wade Phillips with Staley after the 2019 season, you could understand why it caused some consternation — Phillips is one of the greatest defensive coaches of his era, and outside of coaching circles, few people knew who Staley was. But McVay knew well who Staley was — as Vic Fangio’s outside linebackers coach in Chicago in 2017 and 2018, and in Denver in 2019, Staley was one of the architects of McVay’s worst day as an offensive play-designer — a 15-6 loss to the Bears in which quarterback Jared Goff threw four interceptions and no touchdowns, and the Rams gained just 214 total yards.
The Rams are clearly in good hands with McVay leading the offense and Staley in control of the defense. Their relationship has developed quickly, too, working in lockstep to give the Rams the best possible chance to win a championship thanks to their schemes and play designs.
The biggest concern with Staley is how long Los Angeles will be able to keep him because he’s rapidly becoming a hot candidate to ascend to a head coaching gig sometime in the near future.
Coaches will be allowed to return on an option basis beginning June 15.
The NFL sent a memo to teams last week allowing them to open their facilities to coaches on June 5. Only some teams acted on the change and brought their coaches back in, and the Rams were not one of them.
That could change next week, however. According to Albert Breer of the MMQB, the Rams will reopen their facility to coaches on June 15, but on an optional basis. In other words, if coaches want to go back into the building next Monday, they’ll be allowed to. But if they want to keep working from home, that’ll also be permitted.
Among the NFL head coaches who returned to work on Friday were Zac Taylor of the Bengals, Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, and the Packers’ Matt LaFleur.
Sean McVay and the Rams’ coaches have made it sound like working remotely has been seamless and easy, which is probably the reason for their patience going back into the building.
As far as players returning to work, that’s going to take a bit longer. The NFL issued protocols to teams regarding players returning to facilities, and it includes lockers being spaced at least 6 feet apart, using social distancing measures in meetings and masks being required when not taking part in athletic activities.
Meetings of more than 20 people are also prohibited and must be held virtually, as they have been for months.
Among the highlights here:
– Locker rooms reconfigured to permit people being 6 feet apart
– Meetings must be conducted virtually when possible
– Helmets, shoulder pads, etc. disinfected after each game
There’s still no set timeline on when training camp will take place, or whether the preseason will be held in full this summer, but the league is taking steps toward getting things back to normal at some point in the future.
