special teams

Sean McVay, Rams are placing a greater emphasis on special teams this season

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7542299/2026/09/04/rams-special-teams-sean-mcvay-bubba-ventrone/

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams are seven months from two muffed punts in the NFC Championship Game, a blocked punt in the wild-card round, a season of blocked field goals and penalties and explosive punt returns allowed by a special teams phase they left to the bottom of a top-heavy roster, only to pay for it when the lights were brightest.

Something had to change.

It started with a coordinator switch. It was followed by a couple of signings that fell way below the radar in an offseason headlined by Matthew Stafford’s return for an 18th season and blockbuster trades for All-Pro defenders Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie.

As Super Bowl favorites with a ticking clock on Stafford’s career, the Rams weren’t oblivious when the margins began screaming to them on special teams.

“I’m not going to run away (from the fact) that I haven’t done a good enough job of making that an emphasis,” coach Sean McVay said. “It’s cost us, and that is nobody’s fault but my own.”

This roster, this leadership, this system, this practice plan — it all had to be different than it was a year ago.

“We could be the reason why we win a game,” linebacker Shaun Dolac said, “but we don’t want to be the reason why we lose.”

A new man in charge

Last season went so off the rails on special teams, with mistakes offering daggers in nearly all of their six losses, that the Rams did something rarely seen from a team with a playoff spot locked up: They fired a coordinator with two games to go.

After dismissing Chase Blackburn, they did their best to patch things together with interim coordinator Ben Kotwica. They eliminated some penalty issues, and the kicking game continued to improve. But they couldn’t prevent some moments that defined their playoff run, from the blocked punt in the final minutes against the Carolina Panthers in the wild-card round to Xavier Smith’s two muffed punts against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship.

It all led to one of the most important moves McVay would have to make this offseason in hiring new special teams coaches. He ultimately landed on a tandem in coordinator Bubba Ventrone and assistant Kyle Hoke, both from the Cleveland Browns. It was a bet on the pair to rebound from some miscues that sunk the Browns’ season last year — and to get back to the levels Ventrone has shown before.

Ventrone was considered a rising star during his tenure as coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts from 2018 to 2022. His units regularly created explosive returns, blocked punts, blocked field goals and were precise in flipping field position. His process was to develop players from special-teamers into offensive and defensive starters who kept their third-phase focus. He hit on names such as All-Pro Ashton Dulin and Pro Bowlers Zaire Franklin and Kenny Moore II.

The development plan would have to be different on a team with immediate goals. But what still exists is Ventrone’s intensity and pedigree as a coordinator with eight years of experience and as a player who lasted a decade as one of the most physical and vocal special-teamers, including for four years under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots.

“Bubba came in and showed his personality, he showed us who he is as a coach, and he’s been doing it for a long time as a player as well,” Dolac said. “He brings that intensity every single day into the meetings, and we love that from him. You get it every day from him.

“He does a good job being just a teacher, teaching us how to do things. We have the ability to ask questions, and he has the answers to every question that we have.”

A new voice in the room was one shift. But it would only matter if the players he coached were up to the challenge.

A shifting roster

For all of last year’s special teams nightmares, the Rams felt they at least had a kicking game to bring back.

Ethan Evans had some electric punts last season, including the 50-yard boot against the Seahawks that landed at the 1-yard line in Week 11 to help seal a 21-19 win.

Harrison Mevis became a revelation after his midseason replacement of Joshua Karty, who kept falling victim to blocked kicks in addition to some misses. Between the regular season and playoffs, Mevis delivered on every extra point as well as 18 of 19 field goals, including a 42-yard game winner in the snow to beat the Chicago Bears in the divisional round.

But Evans’ second-half regression, and all of the issues that compounded in penalties and returns allowed and blocked kicks in crunch time, magnified a glaring issue in the foundation: The Rams were trusting too many young players on special teams. They tried to rectify it at midseason by bringing back 38-year-old long snapper Jake McQuaide. But what became clear was that a special teams unit that relied largely on first- and second-year players was doomed on the biggest stages against the best opponents.

So, the Rams went after two veterans in free agency: long snapper Joe Cardona and cover man Grant Stuard. Cardona, now in his 12th season, played his first three for Ventrone in New England. Stuard, now in his sixth season, spent a year with Ventrone in 2022 in Indianapolis after Ventrone sought him out in a trade from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Ventrone relationship would mean plenty once Stuard was on the practice field cracking teammates, taking them to the ground and barking back at his coaches.

“If I say something to him or he bites at me, we’re familiar with each other,” Stuard said of Ventrone. “There’s no distaste.”

It has empowered Stuard to take charge of the goal he had when signing with the Rams, which was to become the leader of a special teams unit.

“Me as a player can be an acquired taste,” Stuard said. “… If you hate it, oh well, I’ll go somewhere else.”

The Rams have welcomed it, because they know that after last year, they aren’t in a spot to reject alternatives. In one practice, Stuard went at it with offensive coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase, who got on him about taking players to the ground. At one point in training camp, McVay came out to Stuard to talk him into a more middle-ground approach. But it wasn’t a rejection of his persona in a year with so much on the line.

That doesn’t mean everything changed. The Rams made a bold choice in bringing Smith back after he muffed the two punts in Seattle. They’ve worked with him to grow from it and were encouraged when he returned a 40-yard punt in the preseason opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“It’s not about how you react but about how you respond to those adversity situations,” Smith said, echoing a message McVay shares all the time.

A new emphasis

The Rams spent the majority of their training camp practices at Loyola Marymount University with a new approach: They began the day on special teams.

“It gives us a way to start off practice, and you can emphasize starting fast on special teams, which will then translate to how we practice the rest of the day,” running back Ronnie Rivers said.

Added Dolac, “We’re all just going at 100 miles an hour and making sure the younger guys see it. That’s the standard around here.”

They are playing more offensive and defensive players on special teams, including Konata Mumpfield, Tyler Higbee, Nate Landman and Kam Kinchens.

“You have guys who are starters on offense or defense who are in Year 11, 12, guys like Higbee who are going out there and giving great effort and who are concerned with doing the right stuff when that’s not conditional upon them making the team,” Stuard said. “He can suck on punt, but he’s going to be out there in 13 personnel. The collective wants to be good. It’s not, ‘What can I do to be available?’ It’s, ‘How can I make this unit better?’”

They all feel the weight of what went wrong last year. That’s true for a player with a second chance like Smith and a newcomer like Stuard, who isn’t afraid to push the boundaries McVay has in practice.

Whether it pays off when the margins are at their slimmest is what 17 games and the playoffs will tell. But they aren’t running from what has to be different — right here, right now, in a season with high expectations.

“The difference between this year and last year, holistically as an organization,” Stuard said, “is we’re putting a lot of attention into special teams.”