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Rams Tap McVay as New Head Coach

Can McVay get the Rams' offense humming?

He was one of the youngest coaches in the NFL period coming onto today and now he’s officially the youngest head coach in the modern NFL era. The Los Angeles Rams announced Thursday that former Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay will be their new head coach. McVay, 30, signed a five-year contract with the Rams.

Now, we all say 30 because the history the hire makes, but everyone is stressing that McVay turns 31 in 12 days like that any difference at all. He’s a young dude. Hell, he’s 11 years younger than I am and if I focus on that too much I’ll spend the rest of the night drunk and crying on my back porch.

McVay wasn’t hired alone if the rumors are true. The kid, and I’m calling him a kid, likely comes in as a package deal with none other than Wade Phillips as the new Rams defensive coordinator.

“I am incredibly honored by this opportunity and I want to start by thanking (Rams owner) Mr. (Stan) Kroenke and (Rams VP) Kevin Demoff for their faith in me to lead the Los Angeles Rams as head coach,” McVay said in a statement. “Collectively, we are committed to building a championship caliber team, and I’m excited to start that process and make our fans proud.”

McVay’s hire, on the surface at least, makes it look like General Manager Les Snead’s job is safe for at least another season.

The whole McVay thing came out of nowhere just a few days ago. The job seemed to belong to either Atlanta Falcons Kyle Shanahan, who the Rams had yet to interview, or New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. But McVay not only blew the Rams away with his interview, he did the same thing with the San Francisco 49ers and suddenly a problem arose. If the Rams really though McVay was the man for the job they couldn’t screw around until next week. They had to act. So they did.

McVay began his coaching career as an assistant wide receivers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under head coach Jon Gruden. He spent a season in the UFL coaching wideouts for the Florida Tuskers, then joined the Redskins staff in 2010 as an assistant tight ends coach.

McVay was named the offensive coordinator when Jay Gruden took over the team in 2014 and was a major factor in the emergence of Kirk Cousins as an NFL quarterback and Washington’s emergence as a playoff contender and consistent offensive football team. This season the Redskins boasted the No. 3-ranked pass offense in the NFL.

McVay is the grandson of former San Francisco 49ers exec John McVay who helped build five Super Bowl teams in the 1980s and 90s.

All that’s interesting and shows why McVay was a head coaching candidate. What puts him over the top, and really puts the Rams on the map next season is the addition of Philips at defensive coordinator.

Philips was the architect of the Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl champion defense and the reason they were even in the playoff hunt at all this year. I mentioned in my Broncos article a couple of days ago that Phillips would be the hottest DC candidates on the planet. Phillips ran a 3-4 in Denver, but the Rams have 4-3 personnel. It’ll be interesting to see how he uses the players already on the team.

If Phillips does take the job, he’ll likely have to battle his old defensive backs coach Joe Woods to put his staff together. Woods was already rumored to be the top candidate to replace him in Denver under new head coach Vance Joseph.

Will McVay call his own plays? It’s hard to tell. Norv Turner and former Buffalo Bills interim head coach Anthony Lynn have already been connected to the open offensive coordinator position. I’d still love to see Mike Martz come back as OC.

It’s been a big day for Los Angeles, needless to say. Just a few hours after finding out they had a new team (the Chargers), now they have a new coach. They could find out about the rest of their coaching staff as early as tomorrow.

With the Rams filling their open head coaching spot, that leaves two open jobs; the 49ers and the Chargers. Frankly, Kyle Shanahan would be perfect for the Chargers and would probably have them in the playoffs his first year with Phillip Rivers at quarterback. If the 49ers really do want to create a “Patriots West,” they now have their chance and can pull a double hire with McDaniels and Pats director of player personnel Nick Caserio.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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