Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay consistently asks his assistant coaches to call plays during the regular season to give them a taste of an elevated position on the sideline.
This preseason has been no different. In Week 1 of the preseason, offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur and ILBs coach Greg Williams called offensive and defensive plays, respectively. The results were great: The Rams cruised to a 31-21 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
The rest of the Rams’ two preseason games will feature a total of four new playcallers, McVay revealed this week, per Stu Jackson of the team’s website.
Pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and defensive coordinator Chris Shula will call plays for Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone and defensive line coach/run game coordinator Giff Smith will do it for Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns.
Shula is already an up-and-coming name in the coaching world, but Scheelhaase is gaining a lot of steam, too. Scheelhaase, the former Illinois quarterback, was named to The Athletic’s 50 under 40 list earlier this offseason. Scheelhaase interviewed for the Buccaneers’ and Jaguars’ offensive coordinator vacancies before McVay promoted him from offensive assistant and pass game specialist to his current role.
Ragone is another young ex-quarterback who has more than a decade of coaching experience. It’s his second year with the Rams after he was the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator for three seasons from 2021 to 2023.
Smith, meanwhile, has coached in L.A. since 2017 — first for the Chargers in various roles until 2023 (including interim head coach in 2023) and in his current role with the Rams for the past two seasons.
All four have the makings of future head coaches or coordinators (if they’re not already one), so it’ll be interesting to see how the offense and defense looks with those four making the bigger decisions.