Sean McVay knew the Rams, and their season, were in trouble. Big trouble.
Throughout the week of preparation for their wild-card game against the Lions at Ford Field in January 2024, McVay saw an offense failing to grasp the game plan.
Too much hand signaling. Too much verbiage at the line. Too much change. Too much.
With 48 hours until kickoff in Detroit, a hungry city that hadn’t hosted an NFL playoff game in 30 years, many coaches would have pressed on and hoped their players settled in. Instead, McVay scraped significant portions of the offensive prep and started over.
“A lot of it was just our terminology and how we were getting to stuff,” says Mike LaFleur, the former Rams offensive coordinator and new Cardinals head coach. “And I say that because it wasn’t like we were just going up and snapping the ball. We had a lot of different things that we were putting on the quarterback, but also our players. [Receiver] Cooper [Kupp] was kind of the magic piece in terms of his movement. This was all going to be [played] in a place where you couldn’t hear anyone. It had to be a lot of nonverbal. Again, 24 to 48 hours before we go into that environment in the playoffs to make those adjustments—it might sound small, but it was massive.”
Los Angeles went on to lose that game, 24–23, but the offense was brilliant. Matthew Stafford threw for 367 yards and two touchdowns, Puka Nacua had 181 yards receiving and the offense averaged 7.7 yards per play. Despite the defeat, the moment provides insight into the mind of McVay, whose quest for victory is built on two bedrock pillars: communication and attention to detail.
The youngest person ever to be hired as an NFL head coach, at age 30, McVay is now the league’s most influential mind, as one franchise after another becomes populated by coaches who learned at his clipboard.
Entering the 2026 season, McVay is arguably the game’s top coach. He’s inarguably its kingmaker. With a 92–57 career record, seven postseason berths, four NFC West titles and two Super Bowl appearances with one championship with the Rams, McVay, 40, is headed toward Canton on his own merits. And yet, entering his 10th season as a head coach, perhaps his greatest legacy is starting to take shape in the form of an increasingly impressive coaching tree.
It bears pointing out that McVay’s tree is actually more of a robust branch from the tree of two-time Super Bowl champion coach Mike Shanahan, whom McVay worked for in Washington. Still, McVay has put his personal imprint on plenty of the game’s great minds. Seven of his former assistants have gone on to land head coaching gigs during his Rams tenure. Currently, he has five active head coaches (Liam Coen, Jaguars; Matt LaFleur, Packers; Mike LaFleur, Cardinals; Kevin O’Connell, Vikings; Zac Taylor, Bengals) and as many coordinators on opposing staffs. And more are likely coming soon, as Los Angeles offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and defensive coordinator Chris Shula each had interviews this winter for vacancies.
“His decision making and ability to find like-minded coaches and guys that will blossom in his system has been pretty unique,” says Jaguars assistant head coach Shane Waldron, who spent four seasons under McVay as an offensive assistant. “He hired a bunch of like-minded guys and people that were on the same page right from the jump. He’s been able to stay true to his hiring process and consistently bring in high-level coaches that have been able to not only fill voids, but then blossom in that system and go on and have success elsewhere. From Day 1, he wanted to be a teacher and someone that was helping his coaching staff, along with the players. I think that also allowed for a good environment, a good brain trust that’s been there every single year.”
The results have been telling. The four active McVay acolytes who have served as head coaches (Mike LaFleur will make his debut in Arizona this September) have a combined record of 184-132-2, giving them a .582 winning percentage. And, in their combined 19 seasons, they’ve reached the playoffs 11 times, including one Super Bowl appearance (when Taylor was beaten—by McVay).
Last year in Jacksonville, Coen took over a beleaguered Jaguars team coming off a 4–13 disaster. It was a situation similar to the one McVay faced when he arrived in Los Angeles: a first-time coach inheriting a four-win team with a former No. 1 pick at quarterback and no real track record of recent success.
And, like McVay did in L.A., Coen immediately turned the program around. With the help of Waldron, quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s life was made easier with quick, rhythmic throws to get the offense moving. Last season, Lawrence ranked eighth with 1,392 yards when releasing the ball in under 2.5 seconds. (Stafford ranked fourth.)
McVay’s scheme can perhaps be best seen in intermediate passing numbers. Last season, three of the top six quarterbacks in expected points added (EPA) on throws in the air for 10 to 19 yards were coached either by McVay (Stafford) or by former assistants in Matt LaFleur (Jordan Love) and Coen (Lawrence). Additionally, Jared Goff, who started his career playing under McVay with the Rams, finished atop the league in that category at +95.6. It’s something set up by a core principle of the McVay offense.
“The runs look like the passes, [the Rams] do a great job with the play-actions, the nakeds, the boots, all that stuff,” says Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who spent six seasons on Taylor’s staff in Cincinnati and coached against McVay in Super Bowl LVI. “Then there’s the varied amount of plays that you’re going to see. And then what’s new, right? What are they going to have up for you for that game?”
It’s a question that has baffled many coaches preparing for McVay—and one they’ll have to deal with more as his former assistants increasingly take on significant roles around the league.
In his first season with Los Angeles after a seven-year stint as an assistant in Washington, McVay inherited a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in more than a decade. Two-fifths of his starting offensive line—left tackle Andrew Whitworth and center John Sullivan—were older than he was.
The challenge was immense. And while McVay’s scheme proved to be brilliant, everything could have been undone had the neophyte coach not been able to gain the locker room’s trust and respect. Youth has often meant disaster for a first-time head coach. The four youngest coaches after McVay in the Super Bowl era—Lane Kiffin, Raheem Morris, David Shula and Josh McDaniels—had a combined 52–115 record in their first head-coaching stints, with zero playoff berths.
“Sean is an incredible communicator and kind of a connector of people and players and coaches,” says O’Connell, who has a 43–25 record in his four seasons in Minnesota. “He’s got an unbelievable way about him of believing in the little, important aspects of communication. The team kind of takes on the life of his messaging. In many ways, it’s a positive culture built on preparing the players to ultimately be able to go attack challenges and do things together.
“But the other aspect of him that pairs pretty equally is that he’s one of the brightest football minds I’ve ever met from a standpoint of truly understanding every facet of the game. Technique, fundamentals, schematics. He pairs that with the ability to communicate and teach at a high level. He gets the most out of the people that coach for him [just as] he gets the most out of players and maximizes what they do well.”
While McVay’s ongoing record of success is the main reason so many coaches have gone from his staff to the top seat elsewhere, it’s far from the only one. Among the biggest is how McVay prepares his assistants by giving them insight along the way, providing a glimpse into his world and beyond their day-to-day tasks of leading meetings and handling certain facets of the game plan.
O’Connell, the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2021 when they won Super Bowl LVI, recalls that team’s nadir. That November, Los Angeles didn’t win a game, with a three-game losing streak wrapped around the team’s bye week. Instead of panicking, McVay doubled down on his culture of communication, eyeing the next opportunity for success. In the swirling chaos of a season going sideways—after the Rams made an all-in trade earlier that March to acquire Stafford for Goff, two first-round picks and a third-rounder—McVay continued to groom O’Connell for the next step. It was something the two spoke about prior to that season.
“He followed that [conversation] up by being so impactful, in his actions and how he did things and how he included me and how we would talk daily about different aspects of the offense,” O’Connell says. “It was direct from him and I felt it. He’s one of my closest, best friends. And that relationship is so strong because of how much I know he cares about me and I care about him.”
If McVay has another core trait that’s been passed down to those on his tree, it’s flexibility.
Leading up to an NFC divisional round playoff clash with the Cowboys in January 2019, running back Todd Gurley was ailing. After leading the Rams to a 13–3 record and the NFC’s second seed with 1,251 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns, the All-Pro was suffering from an arthritic knee, causing him to miss the regular season’s final two games.
With the explosive Gurley sidelined, McVay turned to veteran back C.J. Anderson. When Anderson, 27, signed with the Rams in mid-December, they were his third team that season. Without Gurley, McVay called more inside runs, focusing on the power of Anderson, a 5' 8", 225-pound bowling ball in the backfield. Anderson boomed his way to 299 yards rushing and two scores on 43 attempts (for an average of 7.0 yards per carry) in a pair of wins. Then, with Gurley returning to face Dallas, McVay decided to play both backs. The combination of Gurley’s athleticism and Anderson’s force overwhelmed the Cowboys, as Los Angeles gained 273 yards rushing and three touchdowns in a 30–22 victory, the first postseason win of McVay’s career.
“I thought that week of game-planning, and Sean just having that clear vision of how he wanted to attack that scheme, and how we wanted to bring it to life [sticks out],” Waldron says. “That’s one of the ultimate compliments of a play-caller. You can tell he’s feeling it both in the scheme and the game-planning. And then just taking control of that game as a play-caller—I thought was a special moment for us.”
“He knows exactly how he wants to attack you,” Anarumo says. “There’s no gray. He’s not ever going into the game [thinking], ‘I’m not really sure what I want to do.’ He has a defined plan. The players believe in it. And when something isn’t working, he knows how to go to Plan B really quickly.”
McVay’s adaptability is perhaps his most underrated strength, and it’s a trait that’s become crucial to the success of his former assistants.
In Green Bay, Matt LaFleur helped Aaron Rodgers win consecutive MVPs in the coach’s second and third seasons with the team. Then he transitioned to having Love under center and made the playoffs in all three years with him as the starter. From 2019 to ’21, the offense ran through Rodgers and All-Pro receiver Davante Adams, who had 3,924 yards receiving and 34 TDs in three seasons before he was traded to the Raiders. In the four years since, the Packers haven’t had a 1,000-yard pass catcher but have continued winning, utilizing a balanced passing game while also ranking in the top 15 in yards rushing every year. Over the past two seasons, Green Bay has run the ball 1,018 times. Only the Eagles, Ravens and Bills have run it more—and all three had their numbers inflated by run-heavy quarterbacks, unlike the Packers.
With the Vikings, O’Connell has reached the playoffs with two different quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold. Before playing under O’Connell, the two had played 16 combined seasons and made three Pro Bowls. With O’Connell, they earned two Pro Bowl trips in three years.
Ultimately, McVay’s tree will be judged by how much his former charges win. To this point, the victories are piling up, but the ultimate prize remains elusive.
To get there this year, they could well have to go through their friend and former boss, who is the Super Bowl favorite in virtually every sportsbook.
If things go right for Los Angeles, this could be the fairy-tale ending for this phase of the franchise. It would mean another ring for the coach and his quarterback: the 38-year-old Stafford, who has to be considering retirement as a year-to-year proposition. Meanwhile, the Rams have a slew of stars slated for free agency next March, including defensive linemen Kobie Turner and Byron Young, guard Kevin Dotson, receivers Adams (who joined L.A. last year) and Nacua.
Not many things could put pressure on a coach who already has so many career checkpoints ticked off. Being the overwhelming preseason pick to raise the Lombardi Trophy will provide additional heat. If McVay falls short, it could be because one of the men who knows him best rises to the challenge.
“To coach for him, you have to bring something to the table,” O’Connell says. “You have got to be willing to step outside your comfort zones, to grow in ways that maybe you don’t even really understand in the moment. But then every single day you’re getting exposed to an elite leader, an elite schematics coach, an elite team builder. And the consistency with which he does that not only challenges you, but also helps you grow and understand what that standard is and how we all live up to it. And it’s hard to envision, not following the lead and following the example that he set, which is an incredibly high standard.
“But you know that’s out there, and you’re now competing against it.”
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollowPublished 
MATT VERDERAME
Matt Verderame is a national NFL staff writer for Sports Illustrated, writing features, columns and more. Before joining Sports Illustrated in March 2023, Verderame wrote for FanSided and SB Nation. He’s a proud husband to Stephanie and father of two girls, Maisy and Genevieve. In his spare time, Verderame is an avid collector of vintage baseball cards.
Share on XFollow MattVerderameOriginal Article
