By
Andrew Beaton
Dec. 20, 2023 5:30 am ET
When Sean McVay sat down in the Los Angeles Rams’ team hotel before the season, he could have been anywhere else in the world. The coach who burst onto the scene as a wunderkind nearly seven years earlier has repeatedly flirted with walking away, only to find himself drawn back to the sidelines each time.
He could have retired in a shower of confetti after the Rams won the Super Bowl two years ago. He could’ve stepped down when his team followed up that title with a head-splitting hangover.
But McVay decided to come back in 2023 despite knowing he would face a tougher test than in past seasons, when the Rams were loaded with the type of proven talent that made them perennial Super Bowl contenders.
As it turns out, that was part of the allure. He knew the Rams were going to have to rely on young players who might have looked a bit too young to handle such a big job—or precisely how McVay once began his own rise to prominence.
“I don’t think there’s anything that’s ever really worthwhile if it’s not a challenge,” the 37-year-old McVay says. “I really love the youthful energy.”
McVay’s work with this year’s Rams roster, one of the youngest groups in the entire league, stands as a striking accomplishment even for a coach who has won a championship and been a mainstay in the postseason. He has transformed one of the NFL’s least experienced teams into an unexpected playoff contender with a promising future for years to come.
Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp celebrate during a recent game. PHOTO: RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES
The Rams, who hold a 7-7 record and currently occupy the final playoff spot in the NFC, still have a handful of established stars. But the backbone of this season’s team is something else entirely: players who had barely stepped onto an NFL gridiron before.
The Rams’ Super Bowl-winning team was stocked with players who barely needed to be coached. It was built around veterans such as defensive tackle Aaron Donald, quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp. He rarely had to stress the fundamentals of the game when he had players so ingrained in them.
This year, though, people around the team say that McVay has returned to his roots as a teacher. Working with a younger group has allowed him to build from the ground up by instilling the basics in a greener set of players. He’s even ramped up the speed of practices this year, both to get his young players more snaps, but also because there are fewer aging players who need days off.
“It’s changed the narrative from a team that’s top heavy and stars to: this is a group that drafts and develops,” says Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff. “The goal of this year was if you feel your window is closing, how do you open your window for as long as possible?
“I think this window is opening rather than closing,” Demoff adds.
Questions about how this team would gel raised eyebrows before the season started, when Kelly Stafford said on her podcast that her quarterback husband was having trouble connecting with younger members of the team who are constantly buried in their cellphones. The 35-year-old Matthew Stafford, afterward, brushed it off and joked about his age: “I was going to come out here with a newspaper under my arm with some spectacles.”
Sean McVay was hired by the Rams in 2017 at the age of 30. PHOTO: ROB CARR/GETTY IMAGES
But it was different for McVay, too. The Rams now have players who are 15 years his junior, and such a young team requires patience, he says. But he also believes the players they brought in tend to be quick learners, which means his job is finding a way to reach them and capitalize on that.
“There’s some processes that you’ve got to be able to connect and understand, how do they digest information in a way that allows them to go play with a quieted mind,” McVay says.
What made McVay such a curiosity when he was first hired in 2017 was also part of his genius. He wasn’t simply an offensive wizard who could cook up plays that would shred defenses. Being the youngest head coach in modern NFL history also meant he was a peer of his players—some, like tackle Andrew Whitworth, were even older than he was. McVay would run around on the field during practices and looked like he should be wearing a helmet instead of a headset.
These days, everything is both the same and completely different. McVay is still the youngest coach in the league, yet now he’s also one of the game’s longest-tenured bosses.
The Rams’ youth recent movement was as much a necessity as it was an inevitability. From the moment McVay took over, he and general manager Les Snead used their most valuable draft capital to acquire cornerstone veterans such as Stafford and cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The last time Los Angeles used a first-round pick was back in 2016 when it selected Jared Goff, who was later shipped away in part of the blockbuster for Stafford.
The strategy worked brilliantly: The Rams were perennial contenders and won the Super Bowl after the 2021 season during Stafford’s first season with the team.
That run crashed last year. After suffering a rash of injuries, and lacking the depth to survive them, the Rams slumped to 5-12—the worst-ever record for a reigning Super Bowl champion.
“Sometimes,” McVay says, “being humbled isn’t always a bad thing, if you’re able to get grounded and reset.”
The first clue the Rams planned to reboot in a younger direction came this past offseason. This time, they were the team dealing away a star for draft capital when they sent Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins. Since then, they have proceeded to hoard young talent.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua shakes hands with head coach Sean McVay after a score. PHOTO: ROBERT HANASHIRO/REUTERS
The Rams entered training camp with 36 rookies, and 13 are still on the active roster—the second-most of any team in the league. Puka Nacua, a fifth-round pick who’s sixth in the NFL in receiving yards, looks like the second coming of Kupp, another mid-round receiver the Rams turned into a star. Guard Steve Avila may prove to be a stalwart on their offensive line for years to come. Linebacker Byron Young is tied with Donald for the team lead in sacks.
It isn’t just the rookies, either. Running back Kyren Williams had a minimal role last year after the Rams selected him with the 164th overall pick in the draft. This season he leads the league in rushing yards per game.
These young bucks aren’t merely filling out the depth chart. They’re turning into cornerstones, both for the team’s playoff run this year—and for a future that suddenly looks a lot brighter.
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