PHOENIX _ With The Sean McVay Way going in yet another direction as Mike LaFleur takes command of the hometown Arizona Cardinals, the final day of the NFL’s annual league meeting is a good time to review how its roots are in Cincinnati and how close McVay came to being a Bengals assistant.
And current Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, the first of five McVay assistants with the Rams to get his own gig, is passing the legacy to his own assistants, such as offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher.
“He made it very easy for me to embrace my role. I’m thankful. That probably changed the trajectory of my career,” said Taylor at Tuesday’s AFC coaches media breakfast. “Stepping back and seeing what all the quality controls had to do and deal with, I think it’s made me the coach I am today because I had to do that, and the way Sean treated me and the way the other coaches treated me. I wouldn’t exchange that for anything.”
Remember Jay Gruden, who proved the Bengals were right instead of dreamy when they pulled him out of indoor football and the UFL to make him offensive coordinator in 2011? Without an offseason, Gruden broke in the rookie quarterback-wide receiver tandem of Andy Dalton and A.J. Green so well that they made the playoffs three straight years before Gruden became head coach in Washington.
“Jay doesn’t get the credit he deserves,” said McVay when the NFC coaches gathered. “I get a lot of credit for having a lot of coaches come through here. Jay was instrumental in giving me opportunities I don’t think anybody else would have given me. Taking me under his wing, He did the same thing for Kevin O’Connell.”
O’Connell has won an NFC North title with the Vikings. Matt LaFleur has won three of those with the Packers. Taylor has two AFC North crowns. Liam Coen won the AFC South last year during his first season in Jacksonville.
It all starts with Gruden.
When he got the job with the Bengals, one of the first things Gruden did is reach out to the 25-year-old McVay, one of his assistants when he was the OC for the Florida Tuskers in the UFL. Gruden told him, McVay recalled, that he could coach a yet unnamed position.
Problem was, McVay was the assistant tight ends coach in Washington, and the Shanahans, head coach Mike and OC Kyle, weren’t letting him go. Soon they named McVay the Washington tight ends coach.
So when Gruden replaced Shanahan in 2014, he named McVay his OC.
“I thought (the Bengals) was close. I was excited to be able to stay in Washington, and I ended up working with Jay in the end,” McVay said. “I didn’t probably appreciate how good Jay was to me until I got in that head coaching chair. I said what a pain in the ass I was as an OC. Looking back on it, I would have fired me if I was you.
“He was awesome. Patient. He gave me grace. He protected me. When he first gave me an opportunity to call plays, it wasn’t until things were actually going well that he ended up saying that was me calling the plays. Who does that? It says a lot about him.”