Sean McVay had a coaching tree before most NFL people figured he was old enough to develop one.
Here it is, eight seasons after he was hired by the Rams – following two seasons as Washington’s offensive coordinator – and he’s still probably viewed in some quarters as the kid coach. He turns 39 later this month – those of us who passed that number long ago can only sigh – and he has already reached the Super Bowl twice, won one, and earned a reputation as a coach whose teams (a) are never out of the hunt and (b) are fearless.
(These past two seasons, and comebacks from slow starts – 3-6 in 2023, 1-4 this season – to playoff berths have only further embellished that first reputation. Going into Sunday’s regular-season finale with Seattle willing to rest key starters with no concern over playoff seeding – i.e., “Go ahead and come at us” – is evidence of the second.)
One of the branches of that coaching tree will be on the other sideline on Monday night at SoFi Stadium. Kevin O’Connell was McVay’s offensive coordinator for two seasons before taking the Minnesota Vikings’ head coaching job in 2023 – and he, too, was the Washington franchise’s offensive coordinator before McVay brought him to L.A. for the same job in 2020.
The production that former USC quarterback Sam Darnold has provided during the Vikings’ 14-3 season is a notch on O’Connell’s belt, although the roots of the McVay coaching tree run even deeper here. O’Connell’s offensive coordinator is Wes Phillips, and not only was he on McVay’s staff for three seasons but he’s the son of Wade Phillips, who was McVay’s defensive coordinator his first three seasons in L.A., as well as the grandson of longtime NFL head coach Bum Phillips.
Does having a former assistant on the other side make a difference?
“Not too much,” McVay said Monday during his day-after Zoom session with the media. “I think that stuff gets a little bit over-emphasized. Kevin’s a great coach and there’s a familiarity with the rhythm and the routines in terms of how we all operate. There is an evolution and there are adaptions that occur from season to season and week to week.
“It’s a fun narrative, but it’s really about the Rams versus the Vikings. You guys have heard me say it before, every single year is such a new year. You start to really realize that as you’re fortunate enough to accumulate experience. This league, while it’s cyclical, there are a lot of different things that occur and you might know, but it’s like … all right, when do you activate it? There is enough inventory.”
The branches are spreading. Matt LaFleur, McVay’s first offensive coordinator in L.A. in 2017, became head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2019 (and is 5-0 against McVay head-to-head, four regular season wins and one in the playoffs in 2020). Otherwise, McVay is 2-1 against former assistants, 1-0 against O’Connell after a victory over the Vikings earlier this season, and 1-1 against Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor, the victory coming in Super Bowl LVI three years ago at SoFi Stadium.
(McVay’s coaching tree even has spread to the college ranks. Jedd Fisch, currently the Washington Huskies’ head coach, was on the Rams’ staff in 2018 and ’19.)
Matt LaFleur’s younger brother, Mike, is currently in his second season as McVay’s offensive coordinator, and he also figures to receive some head coaching interest from other teams. For what it’s worth, McVay said Monday morning that he hadn’t heard yet of any requests from other teams for permission to talk to his current coaches. Then again, it was only a little after 9 a.m. on Black Monday, the first day of the NFL’s firing season.
“We definitely have a bunch of really good coaches on this staff, guys that I think without a doubt are soon to be head coaches with the way that they lead, communicate, and connect,” McVay said. “Those are things that have been positive problems for us, like we’ve talked about, but none of those things have come to my attention as of this morning.”
There’s a good reason why other teams target members of the Rams’ coaching staff, as the Atlanta Falcons did last year when they hired then-defensive coordinator Raheem Morris. Morris had previously been Atlanta’s interim head coach in 2020 before joining McVay’s staff from 2021-23. But McVay prepares his guys to not only become head coaches but to succeed, through responsibilities, preparation and trust.
O’Connell told an ESPN reporter he experienced that when he interviewed with McVay for the Rams’ OC position: “From the day I went there, he talked to me about, ‘I do believe that you’re going to have an opportunity to be a head coach in this league. … I think you’re more than capable, but I want you to take advantage of this opportunity and grow.’”
McVay has said that a lot of his philosophy in that regard is paying forward the opportunities and preparation he was provided as an assistant. In fact, former Ram offensive lineman and now Amazon Prime commentator Andrew Whitworth noted the result of those experiences, when he talked before Super Bowl LVI – his final NFL game, in February of 2022 – about playing for a head coach who was six years younger than he was.
“It’s rare to do that, but it’s even more rare to be with them at the start and watch really the transition and them grow in their role and find out who they are,” Whitworth said then. “The reality of every head coach in their first time ever being one is, they don’t know what kind of head coach they are either, yet. They’re trying to find that themselves. They have a plan. But you never know if a plan works till you try it, and then you might have to detour that plan.
“Really who he has become as a leader, not just at coaching X’s and O’s, but as a leader of men and understanding how to push guys and how to pull back at times and just meet people where they are, it’s been fun to watch and fun to be a part of.”
A more recent example of McVay’s impact: Holdover assistant coach Aubrey Pleasant interviewed for the defensive coordinator vacancy before this season, but McVay instead went with Chris Shula, who was also on the Rams’ staff. McVay was honest with Pleasant – “he didn’t think I was ready,” Pleasant told ESPN’s Sarah Barshop – yet continued to help him prepare, including giving him the head coach’s headset for two preseason games and eventually naming him assistant head coach to go with his responsibilities as defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator.
After all, if you want the branches to grow, you better take care of them.
jalexander@scng.com