What we learned from new Rams coaches Raheem Morris and Joe DeCamillis

What we learned from new Rams coaches Raheem Morris and Joe DeCamillis

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2380975/2021/02/11/rams-new-coaches-morris-decamillis/

New Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis introduced themselves to media for the first time on Thursday, after their hirings in January.

Morris and DeCamillis are the Rams’ third hires in three years in those respective roles. Defensive coordinator Brandon Staley (who took over for Wade Phillips a year ago) took the Chargers’ head coaching job, while special teams coordinator John Bonamego (who took over for John Fassel) has been moved into an advisory role.

Morris and DeCamillis are veterans in the NFL and in their respective jobs. Morris, who worked on two previous staffs with Rams head coach Sean McVay, has coached on both sides of the ball, has been a head coach and an interim head coach and was a candidate for two head coaching jobs this offseason before McVay hired him. DeCamillis has been coaching NFL special teams since 1988 and has done so for six different teams.

But their inherited systems, players and challenges will be different. Morris is taking over a Rams defense that ranked No. 1 in the league in several major categories, including total defense and in limiting explosive plays, and he will try to marry his Tampa 2 roots with Staley’s evolved Vic Fangio defensive scheme, which featured light box shells up front and two-high looks in the secondary. Under Staley, the Rams also pattern-matched in great detail and operated successfully by sacrificing bits-and-pieces passes and runs in order to limit the often game-breaking explosive plays.

DeCamillis, conversely, will take over a special-teams unit that ranked among the most inconsistent in the NFL in 2020 and finished the year No. 30 in DVOA, according to Football Outsiders.

McVay did not participate in the online introduction of his new coordinators, a break from normal protocol. But Morris and DeCamillis spoke about philosophy, system changes, players and more.

What did we learn?

Defensive philosophy, schematic blending

Morris has a long and successful history with the Tampa 2 defense, but he doesn’t intend to completely overhaul the system Staley had in place. That’s smart, considering that would mean forcing the Rams’ defensive players to have to learn a third “language” in three years.

Instead, he remarked, his goal is to blend concepts from Phillips’ defense from 2017-19 (pieces of which carried over into Staley’s system), concepts from Staley’s evolution of the Fangio system and elements of his own oft-run Tampa 2, which itself picked up other bits and pieces over the years as Morris has spent time on other staffs.

“The greatest coaches in this league are the best thieves,” Morris said with a smile. “I’ve been able to steal from these guys from afar for a long time. … But at the end of the day, it all comes back to the competitiveness of the team, the toughness of the team, the physicality of the team, the hustle and the hit of the team — some of the core beliefs that we are going to be a part of here.

“This is a fundamental team. This is a fundamentally developed team. They did a great job of developing these guys fundamentally — and some, they went out and bought, like a Jalen Ramsey. He’s a fundamentally-sound, absolute dog competitor, and an absolute dog that you want to go out there with toughness and be able to play (with).

“Then you’ve got guys like Aaron Donald, who they (drafted), and just develop into these great players. And after you get a few great players, you get people around them who find that they are just better than what they even thought, they become better versions of themselves, and so do the coaches.”

The Rams usually played in a subpackage in 2020, such as Star, nickel or dime (plus variations of those), and we can expect to see heavy subpackages continue in a league that is more pass-friendly than ever. (Subpackages introduce extra defensive backs in various ways to counter a higher volume of passes while helping open up a pass rush.)

In fact, 58.6 percent of the Rams’ defensive snaps in 2020 were out of nickel, while 24.7 percent were out of dime. That left only about 15 percent of defensive snaps from their “base,” which technically could have been described as a 3-4 under Staley, but really rotated through four-man, 3-3-5, 3-4, 4-2-5 concepts and more.

If you’re looking at a sheet of paper with a depth chart on it, Morris’ defense could be described as a 3-4 “base.” But friends, we can’t ever limit ourselves to such rigid constructs as a depth chart. The Rams will mix three- and four-man front looks with a variety of alignments on the back end. This, of course, makes them harder to diagnose on the other side. Be multiple, or suffer.

“When you go into your subpackages, which the league has kind of been developing into, you see a lot of four-man fronts,” Morris said. “We’re going to have all of those different types of packages … (but) when you talk about who you are, what you are, we’re going to look like a 3-4 based team.”

Under Morris in 2020, the Falcons blitzed at a 33 percent rate while the Rams blitzed on only 25 percent of defensive snaps, so that’s one immediate difference we could see — the Rams could blitz more in 2021.

Personal influences

Speaking of the Tampa 2, Morris brought up former Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin (whose work with then-head coach Tony Dungy led to the development of the famed system) as a major influence on his career and teaching style.

“It was just fortunate for me to go there,” Morris said. “When I first went to Tampa, I felt like it was the Harvard of football.”

Morris joined the Buccaneers’ staff as a defensive quality control assistant prior to the 2002 season, the year Tampa Bay won its first Super Bowl.

“I walk into a building where Monte Kiffin was the defensive coordinator,” Morris said. “I walk into a building where (current Steelers coach) Mike Tomlin was assisting him. Joe Barry (current Green Bay defensive coordinator and former Rams inside linebackers coach), and you guys are very familiar with him, was our linebacker coach. Our defensive line coach was (current Raiders defensive line coach) Rod Marinelli. Those guys all had something in common that I thought was unique: They were all great communicators. And being a great communicator, they did it all in different ways (with) different tones, and you’re able to steal from all of those guys.”

Scheme for the players

Morris said his main goal is to scheme his defense around his personnel, and not try to make them fit into his system. That philosophy is an obvious best-case scenario for any coach who inherits Donald, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a star cornerback in Ramsey and other high-caliber players.

Staley rotated Ramsey, for the first time since he was in college, into the “Star,” or larger nickel/slot role at times, and particularly when the opposing team’s No. 1 receiver merited attention there, or when Ramsey was needed in run support or was being sent on blitzes. Ramsey and his teammates were energized by that plan, which essentially made Ramsey the “sun” in the defensive backfield’s solar system, around which all others orbited. Ramsey had the best season of his career and earned first-team All-Pro honors for a fourth time.

Similarly, Donald rotated often as Staley and the Rams sought to free him from the double teams he saw at a 70 percent rate last season. It was crucial to the success of the Rams’ defense that, when Donald got doubled, other players along the line stepped up to build pressure and get sacks and quarterback hits. Outside linebacker Leonard Floyd finished the year with 10.5 sacks, defensive tackle Morgan Fox had six and defensive tackle Michael Brockers had five while Donald had 13.5.

So, what’s the plan for the Rams’ two defensive stars?

“Don’t mess them up,” Morris said. “Let’s let these guys get going, you know?

“Jalen is a great player. He’s rare, he’s unique. He can be a shutdown corner, you can move him inside and he can play at the nickel position. He’s smart. You can see his toughness oozing all over the tape. You can see his competitive nature just all over the tape. You see the exciting plays, you see what he can be — the best version of himself at all times when he’s out there on the field. Him as a leader, you love to see him just take that to another level, because I can just see people wanting to follow him because of his style of play.

“Aaron Donald, man, he’s just so much fun to watch. He’s a disruptor. He’s a finisher. He’s the guy that just gets things going and leads by example. You can see it on the field. Nothing he does on the field is shocking. Right now, at this point, I’m just sitting here and just wowed, just amazed by some of the things that he’s able to do. You want to get him lined up and find him ways to get one-on-ones, but at the same time, he’s done such a great job of getting his teammates one-on-ones and setting the guys up around him that you don’t want to take away that part of his strength, either.”

Morris could be a hit with Rams players, in part because he’d like to build around their strengths instead of forcing them into a system, and also because of his stated willingness to build relationships with players that are collaborative, and not one-sided.

“It’s me getting to know them,” he said. “Those guys don’t owe me anything. I think it’s my job to come in and allow myself to be myself, my best version of myself. That’s a communicator, that’s a guy who can get confidence out of these guys, that’s a guy who can get these guys lined up to do the best things that they can do.

“I think these guys have all shown professionalism that you guys can attest to that has been at a high level. I want to be a part of this group. I don’t have to be this group. I don’t need to be the face of this group. I want to be a part of this group.”

Coaching positions are filled, pending terms

The Rams have, according to Morris, agreed in principle with the assistants who will fill the inside linebacker and cornerbacks coaching vacancies, but Morris didn’t want to spill the beans by giving names. A source said that coaches are still in the process of agreeing to terms with the team.

We also likely will see some internal movement via promotion, Morris hinted, and my instinct is that at least some of that will involve the defensive backfield, after the Rams lost cornerbacks coach Aubrey Pleasant to a promotion in Detroit.

Morris added that the defensive hires were collaborative with him and McVay, and that the assistants who have stayed on the Rams’ staff will be crucial to his defensive install.

Developing a return specialist
It’s no secret that the Rams need a solid kickoff and punt returner, whether they continue to develop third-year receiver Nsimba Webster or seek outside talent.

In the news released that announced his hiring, DeCamillis was lauded by McVay for his ability to develop players in the return game, but it won’t be as simple as finding speed in that phase.

“We’ve got to get a guy that can ring the bell and drop the ball over the goal line,” DeCamillis said. “We’re still evaluating the return game. … I think one of the things that you really have to evaluate as much as anything is, the better the blocking schemes are, and the better holes you have to run through, the better the return is going to be.

“Now, where you get special is when it’s a guy who has Devin Hester-type ability. That’s where you can really become special. But we’ve got to make sure that we get the holes open at the start, and hopefully we can get the right guy back there. It might be the right guy that we have right now, you know? He’s a young guy, and hopefully we can get him up to speed and get him better than he was last year.”

DeCamillis added that he has been in contact with punter Johnny Hekker (whom he called “the top punter in the league,” despite what he indicated was a relatively down year) and long snapper Jake McQuaide. DeCamillis said he’d like to see McQuaide, an upcoming free agent, get a chance to “compete” in camp (the Rams recently signed two long snappers to futures deals), but McQuaide may be a salary-cap casualty.

“The last two years, I’ve had to go through that with (finding new) snappers,” DeCamillis said. “I just think you really have to get the right one. … On the other side of it, though, Jake is a great, great long snapper in this league. … Lot of respect, and again, the finances, they’ll just have to work those things out. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to come in here and compete, because I think he’s excellent.”

DeCamillis said he also ran into Donald at the team’s facilities, and reacted accordingly.

“Saw Aaron Donald, he’s probably the greatest player in the world,” DeCamillis said with a grin. “That was awesome to see.”