OC Register’s Ryan Kartje Explains LA Rams Game Planning Duties For Coaching Staff

Ryan Kartje of the OC Register recently published a profile on Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay that will no doubt add to the mystique of the already fan-favorite head coach. Kartje reports that McVay has earned the reputation as a playcalling savant in coaching circles:

Every week, McVay’s gameplan is memorized, each play filed away to be retrieved at a moment’s notice. On Sundays, his double-sided, 11-by-17 play sheet is essentially window dressing, used mostly between drives as a security blanket. Challenge him to recount any of the 306 plays he’s called this season, and he’s confident he could describe them in full detail.

What’s interesting to me is what Kartje reports on later in the piece, detailing the game planning responsibilities of the coaching staff:

Each coach has their own responsibility in regards to game planning. LaFleur teams with McVay on pass plays. Kromer works the run game. Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson handles third downs, and tight ends coach Shane Waldron focuses on red zone. “They’re all instrumental,” McVay says.

That’s newsworthy in the sense that when McVay was hired, it seems as if he was going to draw up all the plays for the team, which seemed like a lot for a first year coach. With all the criticism of the Rams being unable to score in the red zone, it seems like most of those plays are devised by the Tight Ends Coach Shane Waldron who coached with McVay in Washington:

But McVay oversees it all, watching hours upon hours of film and jotting down possible plays in his usual notebook. Assistants describe him as meticulously organized, and, in that way, they’ve noticed the Rams’ weekly process mirroring his tendencies.

So, there you go. It seems that McVay is delegating his responsibilities while his meticulous nature is spreading to the other coaches on the staff.

Check out the article in its entirety, it’s a great read.