Los Angeles Rams May Be Putting Too Much Trust in Sean McVay
By Erik Lambert
Sean McVay did a tremendous job as a new head coach in 2017, taking the Los Angeles Rams from 4-12 to 10-6 and the playoffs his first year.
Experts everywhere proclaimed him the next big thing, the pioneer of a new coaching generation. He certainly seemed to come in far more well-prepared than most coaches his age would be. At the same time, it’s fair to wonder if he might be starting to believe his own hype a little bit. Much of why things went so well in 2017 was because the Rams had a stable locker room filled with vested veterans like Andrew Whitworth, Robert Quinn, Trumaine Johnson, and John Sullivan among others.
It seems like McVay is a video gamer who dominated on easy and decided to flip the difficulty up to nightmare. That is due to the wealth of “personalities” the Rams have seen fit to add over the past month. In that time they’ve brought in a wealth of elite talent but also some of the more notorious knuckleheads in recent league memory. It’s a locker room filled with stars but also a giant powder keg just waiting to explode.
Marcus Peters and Ndamukong Suh offer a whole new level of demand
It started with the trade for cornerback Marcus Peters. Confrontations with his coaches are something that goes back in his history all the way to college at Washington. He’s an All-Pro corner that Andy Reid, one of the best in the business, willingly gave away.
Next came another trade for fellow cornerback Aqib Talib. He too has a long history of transgressions that have drawn discipline from the league, nevermind the refs. Are you going to put those guys in the same room?
Last but not least is veteran defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. While he doesn’t have a history of battling with coaches, at least publicly, he’s been known to lose his temper on the field and bring unwanted attention from the media. McVay didn’t have to deal with a single player like this in 2017. Now he has three of them, all older and all sporting loud opinions.
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This is not to say he can’t handle it, but if the Rams get off to a poor start in 2018, for whatever reason, that locker room could become a major problem fast. Los Angeles better hope their young coach is ready for this leveled-up beast they’ve created. It could either be great or a disaster.