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Newest member of Los Angeles Rams coaching staff could signal an important shift from Sean McVay that could help Rams' chances of victory

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By AJ Schulte | Last updated Feb 25, 2025 6:30 AM ET

On Monday, the Los Angeles Rams announced their coaching staff for the 2025 NFL season. While there weren't too many changes from their playoff-bound 2024 staff, the team did announce six new hires from across the league.

One of those in particular caught my eye and has made me more excited for this upcoming season in Los Angeles.

Joining the Rams as their "game management coordinator/assistant tight ends coach" is Dan Shamash.

While that might not mean a ton on the surface, Shamash is a fascinating story, and his background might suggest a mammoth shift for Sean McVay, and the Rams, moving forward.

A Carnegie Mellon student working on a dual-focus degree in philosophy and statistics, Shamash caught the eye of Eric Mangini, then with the New York Jets. Back then, the NFL's access to data was much more limited than now, which meant Shamash had to watch, chart, and learn every game and situation on Mondays.

His work ethic (he once lived out of a Jeep Wrangler for three months while working for Mangini in Cleveland) earned him appreciation and continued roles on the staff. His role essentially had him coaching the staff and the players on situational football, officiating tendencies, teaching players the rules of football, and other minute but important details that play factors in winning football games.

Eventually, Mangini's staff was fired from Cleveland, but Shamash still had fans in his corner. Greg Schiano hired him in 2012 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before the Jacksonville Jaguars pulled him away in 2014 as a defensive quality control coach.

There, he met Robert Saleh, who would later hire him with the New York Jets. More on that later.

Shamash joined Anthony Lynn's Los Angeles Chargers staff in 2017, this time on the offensive side of the ball. He once again assisted with the team's game management. In Los Angeles, he overlapped with now-Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who actually credited Shamash with teaching him an obscure rule the Eagles used in a playoff game during their Super Bowl run.

Was Sunday the first time you heard the officials could award a TD when a team commits multiple penalties?

It wasn't for Nick Sirianni.

When Sirianni worked with the Chargers, Dan Shamash (a.k.a. Smash) was in charge of game management. (Shamesh spent last year as game…
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) January 29, 2025

When Lynn was fired, Robert Saleh wanted to bring Shamash with him to New York. However, Shamash was due to have a second daughter, so he elected to stay in LA, this time working under new head coach Brandon Staley.

We all remember how aggressive Staley was in his first year with the Chargers. That year, he attempted the highest fourth-down "go" rate and the fourth-most conversions. Shamash played a key role in coaching the team in those scenarios and working with Staley to decide when and when not to go for it.

However, Shamash couldn't turn Saleh down when he came calling a second time in 2022, joining the Jets as their "Situational Football and Game Management Coordinator". Coincidentally, the Chargers got significantly worse and more conservative when Shamash left, while the Jets grew leaps and bounds.

What does this mean for the Rams? I think this might be one of the most impactful hires Sean McVay has ever pulled off.

If there has been one complaint of Sean McVay throughout his tenure as the Rams' head coach, it has been that he has been far, far too passive as a game manager. He's been unaggressive on fourth downs and the Rams' situational football has been inconsistent year to year. Virtually every year, McVay has ranked among the worst coaches in getting fourth-down decisions "right".

Shamash's reputation speaks for itself on how he is compared to those viewpoints. If McVay is serious about changing his approach to the game, it could be a massive, massive boost in their chances to win games in the long term. The rest of McVay's disciples in Matt LaFleur and Kevin O'Connell have adapted and are far more aggressive than McVay has been, keeping their team in the driver's seat to win games more often than not over the last few years.

A Sean McVay who evolves his game management would truly close any holes that I could poke in his resume as a head coach, and should terrify the rest of the league. That potential has me more excited than any other coach the Rams hired.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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