Sean McVay endured the most miserable season he’s had since becoming the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams when the team finished with a paltry 5-12 record during the 2022 campaign.
There were multiple factors that led to the worst season for a reigning Super Bowl champion, chief among them injuries as the Rams were forced to play with backups at nearly every position during the year. While the number of players who missed games far exceeded the totals in previous years, the offense also just didn’t look the same either. The run game was almost completely non-existent while receiving options outside of Cooper Kupp failed to make much of an impact.
Since coming to Los Angeles, McVay has been the play-caller for the team and it worked well up until this past season. However, with the team struggling to move the football McVay actually forfeited his play-calling duties in Week 12 against the Kansas City Chiefs, via Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic:
The low point came when the Rams traveled to Kansas City in Week 12. McVay gave up play-calling, handing off duties to Coen. McVay wanted to see if ceding control could ease some stress, and at 3-8, the Rams had nothing to lose by trying it out.
When a team is losing games like the Rams were, everything had to be on the table so it was good for McVay to realize that amidst that difficult stretch. Although it didn’t work out for McVay as the Rams would end up losing to the Chiefs in a competitive matchup, it was a worthwhile experiment to see what the team would look like if he stepped away from the job.
For the 2023 season, all signs indicate that McVay will continue calling plays on gameday despite having a new offensive coordinator in Mike Lafleur. LaFleur will have a say in the offensive scheme and gameplans for each week, but the bulk of the offensive structure will still run through McVay.
Fortunately this time around, McVay and the Rams should have their full complement of players available for the new season as Matthew Stafford and Kupp are expected to be 100 percent healthy. Not having the two pillars of the offense available killed any shot Los Angeles had of consistently scoring, so with that pair back in tow and a full offseason to clear his head fans should expect a bounce back from McVay and company.
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