Sean McVay On Matthew Stafford’s Adaptability, Rookie Development & More | The Coach McVay Show

Sean McVay On Matthew Stafford’s Adaptability, Rookie Development & More | The Coach McVay Show

Well, welcome back from our mini bye-week everyone and welcome to the Coach McVey show presented by Microsoft Surface Co-Pilot Plus PC with the head coach of your Los Angeles Ram Shawn McVey. I am JB Long. Um, good to see you. I know it wasn’t your favorite weekend, but uh it’s funny how misery loves company in the NFL. after your bitter Thursday night loss, the rest of the NFC West and even the Eagles and some other teams joined you in defeat and frustrating I don’t feel bad at all, you know, but uh I I think it was good to be able to get a little bit of an emotional reset. You know, you don’t want to sit on it. I’m excited to get back to work with the guys and I’m optimistic. I’m encouraged. Um and I’m looking forward to for us to be able to lean in and I I know we’ve got the right kind of guys. I know that there’s an understanding of where we need to go and what we need to do to be able to give ourselves a chance to be able to finish some of these games, but um you know, we’ve learned a lot in these five weeks and and there’s a lot of football left, but there’s a lot of guys that uh I’m glad to be in the foxhole with them. Sure. If I summarize the first segment of this season by saying, “All right, now I know that after five games, the Rams can beat anyone in their league, but they’re also vulnerable enough to beat themselves on any week as well.” Is that accurate? And how do you build off that from I think that’s fair. I think the the reality is you have tremendous respect. I think you know humility is only a day or a week away in this league and you have to have tremendous respect for every single opponent that we come across. But when we are executing on a consistent basis the way that we’re capable of, man, it’s a pretty good movie. And um it always comes back to people. I love these players. I love these coaches. I love the responses I’ve seen when things haven’t always gone down the way that we want. We’re going to lean into some of the things that have been consistent things like this field goal operation and get this thing figured out. some of the things that we can do whether it’s defensively or offensively. But um you know it always has been always will be about people and I’m excited about being in the bunker with these people whether it’s our players our coaches um and I’m excited to get back uh you know on the saddle and attacking opportunity to try to go get our fourth win against Baltimore. Sean in some instances in some places accountability looks like a loss of opportunity be that snaps or even a job. What does accountability look like for the Rams right now in this moment in this week as you prepare for Baltimore? Well, I think accountability looks like, you know, clear communication from us as coaches in terms of what are the expectations, what are we asking them to be able to get done, whether that’s the week of preparation, whether that’s in-game adjustments, whatever that is. Are we providing clarity to be able to set our players up for successful outcomes? And then ultimately, are our players consistently delivering on their end of the bargain? um we’re in it together. But I think accountability means the security to acknowledge where your role or where you can help contribute to where we’re trying to head your 111th or your communication and clarity as a coach, some of your decisions that you’re responsible for. And um I think we’re all in this thing together. That’s the most important thing. I want us to be able to have the right vibe as we move forward. Um not be afraid to acknowledge some of the things that we can do better uh but not let that take away our stinger to continue to swing and have the courage to go for it. It’s kind of an organizational management topic that I think applies outside of football. And if I’m being candid, when I mess up, sometimes I’m a little timid with that next rep or I shy away from it a bit. What I’ve always admired about your Rams is this is a place where people can make mistakes. Yeah. And they come back with a big swing. How do you foster that? How do you coach your coaches and your players to be those types of people? I I think it’s the vibe. you know, I don’t know if it’s anything that you can, you know, your job is to inspire and impact, you know, positive change and and influence that as we move forward. And so that vibe I I you know, I’ve heard Nick Saven say this and I think when you have negative experiences without correction, that leads to loss of morale. Well, so hey, when we have some negative experiences, let’s apply tangible solutionoriented things, then the fundamentals, the techniques, whether it’s the decision making that we feel like we all have a chance to be able to improve as we move forward so that morale isn’t lost. And then let’s have a clear understanding of, you know, we might have fallen short in these two games, but let’s acknowledge what the reality is. Let’s lean into some of the good and let’s acknowledge the things that we have to improve upon. Um, you know, with the courage to continue to swing and and not be afraid of whatever that outcome is if we’re trusting ourselves and the people around us. On this Monday, did you see any indication of the temperament your players brought back to the facility today? I do. You know, they had the right vibe, you know, and that’s not anything that I I don’t take it for granted, but that’s what I would have expected. you know, we’ve got the right people on this bus. Um, we’ve got the right kinds of people to be able to acknowledge, address, and have accountability for the things that they can improve upon. It always starts with, you know, I I want to make sure that I’m doing as good a job as I can of setting our players up for successful outcomes. And I know our coaches feel that way and and I think our players feel that from us. And then ultimately, how do we bond together to to be able to go play our best ball when those opportunities present themselves? We’re almost a week beyond the loss to San Francisco, so I don’t want to dwell too much on that, but there are some things that I’d love to get clarity on. The first one is is a punch out versus a knockout blow. And as more and more defenders are taking these full swings at the football, Nate Lamman, we’ve celebrated. They’re doing it really well. Is there a point where a foul needs to be called for a shot to the head versus a shot to the ball? Yeah, you know, I don’t want to get into that too too much. What I do know is is that there’s a point of emphasis that if you’re in traffic and you don’t have the off-hand cover, you’re going to leave yourself susceptible to those types of things. And um you know, a good opportunity for us to be able to lean back in. Unfortunately, there was you know, major stakes that that uh you know, that prevented us from being able to score in that moment. And who knows what that ends up leading to, but um you know, those are those are hard ones, but got to get the off hand over there. I know that the focus is on Kiran, but I think both backs that you played the other night have had some ball security issues. Uh, how much does that complicate coming back this week and designing a game plan based on both of them? I think you lean in and you, you know, you you trust that, hey, we’re going to do the next right thing. Um, you trust that the intentionality on the fundamentals is is going to be at a premium. The, you know, looking the ball in on a toss, um, securing the ball on the catch. You know, there’s always going to be fundamental things that we can lean into. there’s been enough positive experiences and and unfortunately we’ve had some negative ones that um I’ve always seen the best responses from through some of these challenging times and these are just two people that you don’t bet against. I know last Thursday I was thinking about the game against Philly at Sofi last week where there was a forward progress call on the field that was successfully challenged and overturned and that led me to the nuance in the rule that I didn’t realize had been added quietly in 22 that that’s normally not a call that can be challenged but I guess if it’s prior to or simultaneously with the defensive contact that’s a a loophole. That’s right. Did Dolax hit on kick cover there not qualify? Yeah. What they said was they they blew the play dead because they said his forward progress was stopped. So, if I did challenge it, the ball would have to have come out before they would have deemed that forward progress being stopped, which wasn’t going to be applicable there. And u you know, we can we can go back and forth on how we see that one, but that was uh would have been a big play for us. We don’t need to. I think we’re in alignment there. But how about the play he made in the spot? And then I know you’re banged up at linebacker with Omar, which you can talk about here, but is Shawn one of those candidates to step up and fill that? Sure is. You know, him him and Troy are the guys that we have on the active roster. We got some capable guys on the practice squad and so, you know, as we’re in the early parts of the week, we’re working through exactly if Omar does miss, you know, what does that look like in terms of uh our contingency plans and how do you get his ankle and and how long he got it early in the game. He got it on, you know, the ninth defensive snap that we had, he ended up playing through it. It’s one of those deals that those high ankle sprains, you know, you can maybe get through, but then once the reality of what’s going on sets in, it was similar to Steve Aila against the Texans. um you know so he’s a tough dude and uh we’ll hopefully get him back but you know it’s more likely that we probably won’t have him this week and then with the trip to London and the by-week behind that is the hope that if nothing else he can avoid injured reserve yeah I think that is the hope you know because of that um so we certainly haven’t gone down that route yet that route yet uh big picture Arizona Cardinals running back Amari de Marcado the latest to fail to break the plane in a costly fumble I’m sure our audience would love to hear like what’s happening here in Woodland Hills to make sure that never happens to Ram moving forward. Letters and logos, man. We always finish through the letters and logos. Goes back to Zack Taylor. He always used to say that. Um you show good examples of learning ops and you hopefully are never one of those teams that you’re teaching off of. Wow. What will your offensive line look like this week? We’re we’re going to see, you know, if Steve is back to his full health and and performing the way that he’s capable of throughout the week of practice, it’ll look like him. We’ll see how Rob Havenstein is feeling um you know, when we come back on Wednesday. But I was really pleased with what Warren McClennon did. Last Friday, I believe it was, you were asked about the possibility of looking externally for some reinforcements at cornerback. Any progress or update there? That hasn’t been something that we’ve talked about. You know, we’re always looking at ways to be able to upgrade the roster. I think um you know, those guys did a good job and and we’ll continue to lean into them. Do you think that’s one of the toughest positions really in all of football, but especially on defense to both evaluate and then project how it’s going to go year? I do. I I think I think the first part is is the evaluation of it cuz everybody naturally always wants to blame the first defender that’s in proximity, not understanding what’s the coverage contour, what’s his role and responsibility, where are some of the holes in these coverages that teams do an excellent job of of of putting us in some different binds. And so the first part is absolutely understanding you know what is being asked within these different coverages and what is the role and responsibility of those individuals and then do I think it’s a difficult one yes I think with the uptick and all the different things that offenses are presenting the way the game is officiated I think it is very challenging to play NFL defensive back nowadays one other thing that I noticed or heard over the weekend Pat McAfee thought that the squib kicks might be affecting Joshua Card’s place kicking any validity I think there’s fair I I think that uh he is certainly an expert in that arena given his background. It’s something that we’ve talked about and u I I I don’t think that that’s a misguided thing whether there’s truth to that or not. You know, we’re continuing to dive into that, but I don’t think that’s unfair for him to uh you know to say. Is Josh blameless in terms of the blocks so far or is he the primary culprit compared to the protection? You know, I’m not interested in identifying primary culprits, but what I will say is this. I’m interested in all 11 hands on deck and it’s snap, hold, kick, it’s timing, it’s trajectory, it’s the protection for that 1.25 seconds and so we all have to do better there. Sounds like that’ll have as much of your full attention as it ever has during your coaching and it and it absolutely will. Love to talk some Stafford here. Um I know you said you were displeased with taking the ball out of his hands on on fourth down last week. The next time that situation arises, you’re in one of those end of game things. what what fail safe do you want in place? I think it’s the contingency plans, you know, and and I think, you know, you go through all these different things and, you know, where where I take a grave responsibility is are we setting our players up for successful outcomes with the clarity of how to be able to execute and understand the intent of what we’re trying to really be able to get done. Um, and that’s all-encompassing, too, whether it’s a good play call or not. But if that doesn’t exist, it’s not a good play call. And so, um, I’m not one of those guys. I think you set up game plans. I think you still have to see the game one play at a time. You have to understand the flow, understand, you know, what’s best. Um, and and to say that you want to put guys in successful outcomes, that’ll never change. Um, you know, and and I’ll continue to always evaluate myself whether plays work or whether they don’t on where is the, you know, honest in between because naturally we’re all biased towards all right, results only really matter. Well, there’s certain things that I think we have to be able to have a checks and balances system as coaches of all right are is this a good look? Um, did we give them the clarity in terms of executing versus those looks? And if those opportunities present themselves, you can’t be did it work or did it not. You just got to be able to ask yourself, did those things exist for the guys? And, you know, when the ball’s in Matthew’s hands, good things have happened. Um, you know, but I I take a tremendous responsibility in trying to set up those successful outcomes for those guys. I’m interested in your thoughts on the under center drop back game, which a lot of luminaries in the league have have really come to appreciate about your offensive structure this year in particular doing it more than maybe Matthew ever has. When you put plays together, what are the pros and cons of under center versus pistol versus gun versus straight drop back versus play action and how you stitch it all together? Yeah, I think in its simplest form, you know, being able to present like likeness and sameness off of uh you know, presentations that feel and look the same. you know, the more that you have to defend, whether you’re in the shotgun, whether you’re underneath the center, the more that you can present within the framework of what’s feasible and and what makes the most sense. You know, I don’t want to get too uh I don’t want to dive into too much to it, which I think you can appreciate, but um ultimately it’s the the more that you can present and and make defenses defend all types of your offense, whether you’re in the gun or under center. I know you’re a big timing and rhythm guy. Yep. Does that enable you to get to the top of the drop in the timing and the rhythm and then also set up your pass protection accordingly pretty clean? I mean, I think in its purest form, you know, a lot of the timing and rhythm that goes back to coach Walsh and, you know, his days even with the Bengals, you know, was predicated on timing and rhythm drops that were under center, not in the shotgun. You know, they weren’t getting in the gun back then. And so, there are some things that I think are a little bit more pure to when you coach the quarterback to be able to read with his feet. Um, you know, I think there’s been, you know, coach has done a great job of being able to adjust exactly, you know, what is that discrepancy between accepting the gun snap or underneath the center, but there’s nothing quite as pure as the under center stuff. Well, Rams legend Kurt Warner said this, which I didn’t appreciate like even the fraction of a second taking your eyes off of the picture to receive a shotgun snap. Here’s what he said. I used to love the drop back game from under center for lots of reasons, but the biggest was I never had to take my eyes off the defense. It’s one thing I don’t think people talk about enough in regards to shotgun. With defenses moving on the snap, as much as they are, that second you take your eyes off the defense, a lot can change and happen. Absolutely. Kirk’s a very smart guy. Uh spoken from someone that’s played the position. I understand and and and agree with everything. And then last one on that. How about Matthew’s ability and willingness to really adapt to whatever he’s done here in five years, whether that’s heavy under center play action or gunpread empty. Like he seems ready, willing, and able to embrace all of it. Yeah, I think cuz he’s so smart, he understands, you know, we have a reason and intent behind all of this. Um, you know, but his flexibility, his fluidity with us and his understanding of whatever it takes for our team and for our offense to be at his best, you know, to be at its best with him leading the way, he’s always been 100% on board and and for that we’re grateful. 22 out 160 and a touchdown the last couple of games. I was of the opinion that he maybe suffered more than any Ram from Matthews absence this summer. that was just anecdotal like seeing like a slight disconnect like 22 wasn’t reeling all the ones that we’ve come to expect him to get in. Any truth to that and and how encouraging has it been to see your fastest player lock in with I think the opportunities, you know, I think he’s he’s done a great job. I you know, I don’t know about, you know, whether it was or wasn’t? I just know that there’s a lot of belief in this guy. It’s cool to see him make the most of the targets that he’s had each of the last two weeks and I think we’re going to continue to build on that because um you know, good things have happened when he’s getting targeted. I know folks are clamoring for more Terren Ferguson. I’ll ask about him in a second, but on the topic of the rookie class, I think Josiah Stewart deserves a mention first. Yeah. Um, not just rushing the passer, but some coverage reps, too. Is that maybe an underrated uh element of his game? It is. He’s a really versatile player. You know, I think he can do both. I think he’s excellent. You know, he’s at his best when he’s going forward towards the quarterback. Great hands, great get off. You know, he’s got good natural football instincts and I think that’s reflected in some of the drops. But, um, he’s a stud and he’s only going to continue to get better. To join that group, that front and make an impact as a rookie, that must speak a lot to not just, uh, his physical ability, but what he brings to the table mentally as well. That’s right. You know, I I think, you know, Jared and and by have done such a great job. Um, Joe does an excellent job with that group, but whether you’re looking at it, you know, Dez Johnson against Philadelphia or Nick Hampton, you know, the last two games, and then obviously Josiah, I really like that group and u, you know, they’re big factors for us. How about the rookie slot fade? And I know that was a big deal in preseason 3 at Cleveland, but to see it in prime time at South Stadium, you know, he did a great job and he went on some other routes where you know um the coverage dictated the ball to go elsewhere, but uh you know he delivered made a big time contested catch on a third down that we had to have for 21. It was it was big- time play and um you know he’s he’s only going to continue to get better for us. I was thinking on the drive-in this morning how no one understands uh the pain and the urgency of being one and four when you feel like you’ve got a contending roster better than the LA Rams given where you’ve been the last couple of seasons. Is it easy to imagine the mood in Baltimore right now and some of the things they’re saying and doing to turn their season around? Yeah, I think you understand. Here’s what I do know that it’s an incredibly successful, prideful organization with a bunch of great coaches and players. Um, you know, and and we’ve got to be, you know, desperate ourselves this week with how we prepare, how we go about it. Um, you know, and and I think let let these first five games be an example for us to learn from of you don’t take anything for granted. This is a great football team and um, you know, we got to have a great week of preparation and our sense of urgency is going to be at an all-time high. I don’t think anyone took last week for granted, do you? Like in terms of seeing San Francisco injured? No. No. I I I I don’t get that sense. I think there’s too much respect for that group. Um, I did think that we didn’t start fast enough. You know, it seemed like it took us a little bit to be able to get going. Um, you know, had the early down on the first drive offensively where we had the sack where, you know, really something that, you know, we should have been picked up right there and then the second drive ended up turning the ball over on first and 10 on the plus 24 and they score on their first two drives. And so, um, I do like the fact that we can settle in and regain what I felt like was control of the football game, but we just got to be able to finish. And because you once were and still are a young play caller with a ton of success. I don’t know if Jerry Newheisle’s day at the Rose Bowl caught your attention at all, but can you imagine being 33 gets the opportunity puts 42 up and gets carried off? It was awesome, you know, and you could see the investment he has in that place um the players and it was pretty cool seeing his dad um you know in the uh in the post game talk about it and even when he got choked up almost you know talking to his wife saying I hope you’re having a fun time that this game has brought a lot more of those moments than the disappointing ones that the Niners game had. And um you know I love what it’s done for me. I love all the blessings. more importantly, the relationships that are built in the midst of this great game and you just learn so much about yourself. That was really cool. Here’s to many more of those moments perhaps as soon as this Sunday in Baltimore. Thank you for your time as always, Sean. And thank you for joining us everyone for the Coach McVey Show presented by Microsoft Surface Copilot Plus PC.

This week’s episode of The Coach McVay Show features head coach Sean McVay and J.B. Long talking about quarterback Matthew Stafford’s readiness to embrace different offensive changes, integrating rookies like tight end Terrance Ferguson into play calls, and more.

0:00 Intro
0:17 Recapping Week 5
1:03 Summarizing the first 5 games of the season
2:04 Accountability in Week 6
3:05 Inspiring positive change
4:13 Players’ vibe on Monday
4:50 A shot to the head vs. a shot to the ball
5:38 Running back ball security issues
6:17 Recapping referee calls
7:04 Shaun Dolac as a stand-out candidate
7:25 Omar Speights’ ankle update
8:00 Arizona Cardinals running back
8:22 Offensive line
8:39 Reinforcements at cornerback
8:54 Evaluating the cornerback position
9:40 Joshua Karty’s squid kicks
10:05 Preventing blocked kicks
10:32 4th down decision making
12:00 Under center dropback game
12:50 Focusing on timing and rhythm
13:30 Kurt Warner’s thoughts on the Rams offense
14:00 Matthew Stafford’s willingness to adapt
14:31 Tutu Atwell making the most of his opportunities
15:10 Josiah Stewart’s coverage reps
16:02 Rookie slot fade
16:24 Urgency from the Ravens
17:43 Jerry Neuheisel & UCLA’s victory over Penn State

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