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znModeratorTop 5 Offensive Plays Of 2022 | Rams Season Recap
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Rams Ex Andrew Whitworth on Sean McVay Rumors: ‘I’d Be Shocked’
Former Los Angeles Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth helped shed some light on Sean McVay’s retirement rumors.https://www.si.com/nfl/rams/news/los-angeles-rams-sean-mcvay-retirement-rumors-andrew-whitworth
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay has confirmed that he’s not done coaching.
However, his status for next season remains unconfirmed and “in limbo” as of now, as rumors of a potential transition to the broadcast booth have been swirling since the Rams won the Super Bowl last year.
Former Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth developed a strong relationship with McVay before retiring himself after winning a ring to take his talents to TV.
He made an appearance Tuesday on “The Rich Eisen Show” and discussed in detail his experiences with McVay. Whitworth admitted he’d be “shocked” regarding McVay’s retirement rumors, but not in a way that should scare Rams fans.
“I’d be shocked to see him not leading a group of men, playing this game that he loves so much,” Whitworth said. “It’s just hard for me to imagine him not leading rooms.”
The Rams were the near definition of first-to-worst this season. With a 5-12 record, LA secured the most losses by a defending champion in league history.
Amid numerous injuries to star players and the offensive line, it clearly was a year of adversity for McVay and company.
“It was a tough year for that entire organization,” Whitworth said. “It was tough on him, it was tough and everyone in that building.”
But should he decide to take his career to the broadcast booth, Whitworth, like many others, feels McVay would kill it due to the leadership traits he’s displayed since arriving to LA.
“He will absolutely be exceptional at that, he will be unbelievable,” Whitworth said. ” … One of the most impressive things about him when he took the job is his ability to capture a room and lead a group of people, I thought was just so rare.”
The Rams now have an offseason of uncertainty ahead of them, with McVay at the center of it all.
znModerator‘You won too fast too soon’: NFL coaches on Sean McVay, burnout, pressure of winning
Sam Farmer
https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2023-01-11/sean-mcvay-rams-coaching-burnout
The season is over for the Rams, but the hand-wringing is heading into overtime.
What will Sean McVay do? Will he continue to coach the team? Will he take a TV job? How about a leave of absence on a beach in St. Somewhere?
Whatever McVay decides — and that could come any day — there’s a community of former NFL coaches, some of them in the Hall of Fame, who are all too familiar with the pressures of the job. They understand the notion of burnout, even among those with incredibly high-paying and coveted positions.
“There’s only a few Bill Belichicks or Andy Reids out there,” said Dick Vermeil, citing two of the league’s longest-tenured coaches. “There’s only a few Don Shulas or Bud Grants around. I think coach McVay has proven he’s in that talent level. He’s a potential Hall of Fame coach. But if he doesn’t have that personality make-up, no fault of his own, then that may not happen.”
Vermeil gets it. He was Philadelphia’s head coach from 1976-82 and took the Eagles to the Super Bowl. But then he left for a TV job — doubling his $75,000 salary — and didn’t return to coaching until taking over the St. Louis Rams in 1997. There, he won a Super Bowl with Kurt Warner and the “Greatest Show on Turf,” before closing out his career as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001-05.
He said he retired from coaching the first time because the euphoria of winning had evaporated. He only was relieved when his team won, depressed when it lost.
“The loss hurt far more emotionally than the win affected you positively,” said Vermeil, 86, enshrined in Canton last summer. “I found myself thinking about what I should have done last week to win when I should have been thinking about what I had to do to win next week.”
The idea of NFL coaching burnout isn’t going to elicit a lot of sympathy from the public. These coaches aren’t saving lives, and they can make as much in one season as five teachers can earn in their entire careers. Nonetheless, coaching burnout does happen and the topic is particularly relevant to the Rams, who have enjoyed tremendous success with McVay at the helm.
Tony Dungy played for and later worked as an assistant under legendary Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll, who oversaw that organization for 23 years. Instead of being an old-school, sleep-in-the-office coach, Noll was ahead of his time in supporting a work-life balance for people in the organization. Those coaches left work early once a week to play golf and frequently had family days at team headquarters.
“One of the first things coach Noll told us when I was a rookie player was, `Do not make football your whole life. If you do, you’re going to be disappointed when you leave the game,’ ” said Dungy, inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2016. “He told us that as players, and I watched him demonstrate that for the 10 years that I was there.
“I worked at some other places where it wasn’t necessarily like that and where guys thought, `I have to make sure everything goes perfectly.’ If you take that approach, it can get to you right away. Because there are a lot of things to manage and oversee. If you have to be cognizant of everything, and everything happens to come across your desk, it can wear you down and wear you out.”
Winning has always been the bottom line for NFL coaches. That’s nothing new. But with the popularity of the league, round-the-clock news coverage, fantasy football and everyone feeling like an expert, the spotlight on coaches has never been brighter.
“It’s almost unfair today to compare the longevity and stamina of [the coaches from 30 to 40 years ago] with what the job is today,” Vermeil said. “Because the evaluation process has gotten so intense, so magnified. It’s like comparing a 1980 Cadillac with a 2023 Cadillac. They all move forward but the technology and everything within it is totally different. … I think it’s tougher today on coaches.”
McVay, hired at 30 in 2017, was the youngest head coach in NFL history and remains the youngest of the 32 now employed. He got to the Super Bowl in his second season, and his team won it all in February, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at SoFi Stadium, no less. He inherited a 4-12 team that ranked 32nd in scoring, and flipped that in his inaugural season when the Rams were No. 1 in that department.
“I only sat down and visited with coach McVay one time,” Vermeil said. “The only thing I can remember saying to him was, `You won too fast too soon.’ Every team I took over had been losing, especially the Eagles and Rams. Anything you did — make a first down and they applauded you.
“But when you start out as fast as coach McVay has, it makes every year tougher. Even after you win it all last year. Geez. What do you do to prove that you still have the ability to do it? It’s tough.”
This season’s Rams took a dramatic plunge from last season’s dizzying heights, finishing 5-12.
“It isn’t the workload,” said Rick Neuheisel, a former college head coach and offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. “You get up in the morning, you come into work but you’re never looking at the clock. Ever. You’re just doing what you love to do.
“The problem is the pressure of winning, and the weight that it puts on you when you’re unsuccessful. For Sean McVay to go through the year he went through, after the euphoria of the year before, is a feeling like burnout. He’s never gone down a road where it’s been this exasperating.”
Even before and in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl win, there was rampant speculation McVay might leave for a TV job. This season there was a revolving door of Rams offensive linemen, almost never the same group from week to week, and an injury list that included the club’s biggest stars: quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
“You know all that next-man-up stuff? That’s just coach-speak,” said Steve Mariucci, former coach of San Francisco and Detroit, speaking generally about losing star players. “That’s like false bravado sometimes. The next man up isn’t as good as the guy he follows, OK? That’s the reality of it. When you’ve got a lot of next-men-up, you’re going to get your butt kicked. Let’s face it. Let’s talk real here.”
And no matter how compelling a coach might be in talking to his players, at some point those messages lose their edge.
Said Mariucci: “When I got hired by the Niners, [team president] Carmen Policy says, `Coach, you’re not going to be here forever. Bill [Walsh] wasn’t here forever. George [Seifert] wasn’t here forever. There’s going to be a shelf life for every coach. That’s how it works in this league. Enjoy it while you can. It’s going to be the ride of your life.’
“He was very forthright in knowing full well that in his mind the message gets a little boring or stale and it needs to come from somebody new every now and then. Bill lasted 10 years, George lasted eight and I was six. Not everybody is Bill Belichick or Mike Tomlin or Pete Carroll. That’s the exception to the rule.”
McVay isn’t tipping his hand. He wants time to mull his future, and the Rams want to give him that. There are strong indications they are willing to give him a leave of absence, a sabbatical to reboot, but they want him back when he’s ready to return. They don’t want to coach against him.
And there’s no denying the appeal of TV for him. He only needs to look at former New Orleans coach Sean Payton, who worked as a studio analyst for Fox this season and whose coaching stock has exploded. He’s the most coveted coaching candidate out there.
Said McVay of the network interest: “It’s flattering. These are always going to be things that you anticipate and expect that are going to come up, because I haven’t run away from the fact that down the line, or whenever that is, that’s something I’ve been interested in.”
Dungy took a job as an NBC studio analyst after retiring from coaching at 53. He wasn’t conflicted about leaving coaching; he was ready to go. He loves working in TV, but the job doesn’t tick the same boxes that coaching did.
“It’s not the same thing,” he said. “You are involved in the game. You do get to see your buddies. You do get to talk. You get to think about strategy and all those kinds of things. But it’s not the same thrill as bringing an organization together, getting everybody going in the same direction, chasing that one goal and knowing at the end of the year that there’s only one of us that’s going to achieve it and 31 that are going to come up a little bit short but try again next year.
“The satisfaction you get out of molding a team and taking them to the playoffs, winning playoff games. TV is great, it’s fun, but it’s not that.”
Ultimately, for Vermeil, the allure of coaching proved too strong. He had to come back.
“You miss being the king,” he said. “You miss being the boss. You miss making the decisions. The only thing you don’t miss is the pressure.”
znModeratorI will admit I just watched his closing press conference. But this part most stuck out to me. This dude isn’t burned out and I wish we would stop saying that. He’s clearly got some personal stuff going on and needs to make sure he’s all in on football before committing again. pic.twitter.com/UDKmaEjrvf
— Wes (@Sleyson80) January 10, 2023
znModeratorAlaric Jackson got brutally honest about the Rams' O-line on Twitter last night, sharing his unfiltered thoughts about who should start and who should come off the bench 👀 https://t.co/M6pxdppmHT
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) January 11, 2023
znModeratorMichael Silver@MikeSilverIf I’m a team targeting Derek Carr, I’m thinking hard about talking to Greg Olson (currently with the Rams, in limbo like the rest of the staff). Olson was Carr’s OC on two separate occasions with the Raiders, including last season, which went really well despite the turmoil…znModeratorJust a heads up to everyone. I know many people don’t check the board daily, so I want to remind everyone now that Friday is the day to remove our hats in honor of a long-loved friend of ours.
Thanks for that.
znModeratorFrom quora
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her…. a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you be so fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude
znModeratorSome believe Jalen Ramsey had a "down year" in 2022. His PFF grade was higher this year than in 2021, and he was still the 3rd-best CB in the NFL, per PFF https://t.co/cqRgSB5RcL
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) January 10, 2023
znModeratorIn the first 10 games, Leonard Floyd had 19 pressures. In the last 7 games, he had 35, which was tied for the 5th-most of any player from Week 12-18 https://t.co/m5twH8L89k
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) January 10, 2023
znModeratorSeveral Rams players were asked about Sean McVay's looming decision during Monday's open locker room, and they all just want what's best for him.
Here's what they're saying about the matter https://t.co/SOxlFWSrJ3
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) January 10, 2023
znModeratorStu Jackson@StuJRamsRams QB Matthew Stafford reiterated he isn’t retiring. Said he feels “really confident” he’ll be ready to go in 2023 and has full support from his family.znModeratorCouple of important Rams news items in here. Jalen Ramsey expects to get surgery, Cooper Kupp's rehab is on track and there's a key health checkpoint coming up for Alaric Jackson: https://t.co/KNSlNZrRnk
— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) January 10, 2023
znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigueObviously contingency plan at OC for the Rams will be predicated on whatever Sean McVay decides to do. If McVay stays, internal candidates for role include Thomas Brown and Zac Robinson, and externally had even heard about some interest in a veteran coach such as Frank Reich. twitter.com/jourdanrodrigu…znModeratorJAKE ELLENBOGEN@JKBOGENJanuary 10, 2023 at 9:39 am in reply to: Just a thread for different kindsa interesting things #142508znModeratorfrom quora..[zn note: we know all this but good stories are good stories].How were black American soldiers treated by British people during World War II?.Generally very well. There was some of what we would now see as racism but it was different from racism in the US. A black soldier (British Caribbean I think) reported that in some rural villages the uneducated white girls genuinely believed that black people were born with tails which had to be amputated at birth – but that just meant that when he slow-danced with white girls and held them close, he would sometimes feel a surreptitious hand groping his arse to see if he had a stump (that was their excuse, anyway)..In many areas black troops were the first American troops to arrive, and when white American troops came later and started treating their black countrymen as second class citizens most people here were disgusted. There was a joke going around that “I like the Yanks, but I can’t say the same for those white chaps they brought with them”, and when senior US officers tried to insist that British pubs should have a colour bar, some pubs responded by banning white Americans. A white American officer tried to bully a black British-Caribbean soldier the way he expected to bully black Americans back home, and the soldier said “I’m British: nobody talks to me like that” and punched him..[It seems to me that that was always the biggest difference between racism in the US and UK. There were plenty of racists here too, but here if a racist threatened you with violence or made a serious attempt to bully you you were allowed to whack them, and so long as you didn’t get too carried away the courts would back you..I’ve always remember an incident I must have read about nearly 50 years ago, where a large group of white US soldiers chased a smaller group of black US soldiers down the road and round the corner into the arms of a group of Seaforth Highlanders coming the other way, who promptly waded in on the side of the black guys.znModeratorBT you don’t understand the purpose of the NFL. The NFL is to get us, ordinary fans, to accept a corporate dominated world of drudgery. Rollerball, 1975. So the question is how to do THAT better.
1. Play twice a week for 24 weeks. 48 games. In the end, matches will be exhausted struggles just to stay on the field.
2. Players have to play with injuries.
3. Not only that, but, if you are injured, your salary goes straight to the insurance firms.
4. Players can’t celebrate plays. Instead, whenever they excel in some way, they must yell enthusiastically that “I am glad my efforts serve the system.”
5. Instead of standing for the national anthem, before games, players are to watch jumbotron images of Chinese national leaders while they chant hatefully that “east asia has always been the enemy!”
January 9, 2023 at 5:50 pm in reply to: mass shootings & guns … including Trump getting shot at #142502znModeratorznModeratorBill Barnwell@billbarnwellSo, by snap-weighted age, the Saints were the oldest team in football this season. Their average snap came from a player 28.1 years old.Oldest: NO, TB, LAR, NE, DENYoungest: DET, CAR, NYG, CLE, CHIznModeratorAri Meirov@MySportsUpdate@AdamSchefter. They signed him to an extension through 2027 last offseason..Howard Balzer@HBalzer721Firing of Kliff Kingsbury totally in character for the way the Bidwills have made coach decisions. Team shows progress, then takes a step back. Gone. Third-winningest coach in club history, Don Coryell, had only 42 victories and no coach ever has lasted more than six seasons.znModeratorJ.B. Long@JB_LongCam Akers’ closing stretch of six games, projected over a full season? Over 1,700 scrimmage yards and 17 TDs.znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigueMatthew Stafford says in exit interviews that he doesn’t know whether Sean McVay will be back in 2023. Stafford also reiterates he is not retiring, and whether or not McVay leaves has no effect on that decision.znModeratorOur allegations against Santos fall into three categories: I. that he concealed the true sources of his campaign's funding; II. that he misrepresented his campaign's spending; and III. that he illegally paid for personal expenses with his campaign's funds. https://t.co/e9ZjsQBI70
— Roger G. Wieand (@g_wieand) January 9, 2023
znModeratorI see packers fans are taking this well https://t.co/g4W4lV6r36
— HoldenCantor (@HoldenCantor) January 9, 2023
znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Rams LT Ty Nsekhe is questionable to return with a wrist injury. I’m not gonna lie, I do not even know who backs him up.AJ Arcuri probably
what a year
znModeratorHere's what I know about a very fluid Sean McVay situation: https://t.co/IULIWsZYcd
— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) January 8, 2023
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see link above
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Rams’ Sean McVay evaluating short-term future in ‘fluid’ situation: Sources
Jourdan Rodrigue
SEATTLE — Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay is in the process of evaluating his options for 2023, multiple team and league personnel told The Athletic over the last several days. The people who spoke were granted anonymity so they could provide deeper context to what has been characterized as a “fluid” situation.
McVay, 36, is deciding whether he wants to coach or take a break after a 5-11 season he has referred to as a “professional failure” and that has clearly taken a toll on his psychological well-being.
While McVay has been openly courted with high-dollar offers by broadcasting companies for a few years, including this year, his pending decision does not correlate to any current offer in that field, a person with knowledge of McVay’s process said. Instead, McVay is deciding whether it is healthiest for him to take a break from football. McVay has publicly reiterated that he would like to go into broadcasting at some point in the future.
The Rams have worked through this conversation with McVay on multiple occasions before, including after the 2022 season (though that had more to do with the offers McVay was receiving from media companies at that time).
After winning the Super Bowl last February, McVay signed a contract through 2026 with the Rams that placed him among the higher-paid coaches in the NFL, and the team also extended core players Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp.
The Rams have made it clear to McVay that they support however he wants to proceed, a person directly familiar with his process said — whether he needs to take a break, or perhaps if they can make changes as an organization in 2023 to give him what he needs to work at his best. This could be inclusive of coaching changes at assistant positions to help with McVay and his staff’s workload management, among other support ideas.
But, the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity added, McVay’s mind is not made up. Instead, he will take some time to evaluate his decision. The Rams have not given McVay a deadline.
Multiple team personnel who spoke with The Athletic also noted that they would not be surprised by whatever the decision is that he ultimately makes, either way.
One person with direct knowledge of the Rams’ contingency plans for either option, who was granted anonymity in order to speak freely, said that even if McVay decided to step away in 2023, the organization does not currently believe he would permanently retire from coaching.
After Sunday’s season finale, a loss at Seattle, McVay declined to discuss his immediate future with the Rams. When asked directly whether he would be coaching the Rams in 2023, he said, “I’m not thinking about that right now. Nothing has changed from … where we left things off on Friday. I’m right here, right now, and we’ll deal with that stuff at a later time.”
McVay was then asked why he was unsure of a specific answer at this time.
“I’ll talk about stuff as it relates to the game,” McVay said. “Anything that relates to what is gonna happen with me, like I said, I’m not thinking about that right now.”
Quarterback Baker Mayfield, who started for the Rams after joining the team in Week 14, has gotten to know McVay more since their initial meeting on a plane ahead of his rookie season. While multiple players said postgame that they aren’t sure what will happen with McVay, Mayfield noted, “(McVay) is so truly invested in (putting) everything he has into this game. Everything he thinks about is about football. That’s why you see the toll that it takes on him.”
znModeratorhey. one of the few bright spots this season. cam akers resurgence, wags, and jones being other ones. just hope this carries over into next season and also that mcvay doesn’t retire
The Chargers ate Durant up. Hopefully he learns from that.
znModeratorIn terms of the McVay legacy, if he steps away after his first season of real adversity, then, I will probably think less of him. He never had to rebuild a team the way Vermeil did. He had kind of an entitled entry into the profession, taking over a team that had a lot of young pieces already (he added to the WRs and got Whitworth).
There’s a lot to McVay and he’s obviously a tremendous coach, but, he does have his little character flaws.
Then so did Vermeil. Remember the “so-called superstar” remark? And retiring after 99 then regretting it?
Ah the fortunes of Rams fans. 😎
znModeratorHoldenCantor@HoldenCantor
Per @PSchrags on the @BillSimmons podcast Sean McVay is burnt out. Mentally, emotionally, all of it. He thinks he is just spent.Peter is close to McVay and close to people in the Rams organization
Sosa Kremenjas@QBsMVPP Schrags on Sean McVay on FOX right now: – Won’t be a surprise, ongoing dialogue – McVay and Rams talking – He’s gone back and forth over the past several days – Needs the time to reconsider everything – No decision made yet -
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