Just one month after the Rams hired Sean McVay to be their new head coach and then landing Wade Phillips to be the defensive coordinator, they have hired Falcons quarterback coach Matt LaFleur to be their new offensive coordinator. LaFleur spent last season in Atlanta as the quarterbacks coach where he in tandem with former Falcons offensive coordinator and new Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan, to create the league’s best offense last year. Prior to that he spent two seasons in Washington under Kyle Shanahan where they helped Kirk Cousins develop into a top ten quarterback. For reasons that remain unclear, the Falcons passed him over for offensive coordinator in favor of former college head coach Steve Sarkissian. Their loss is perhaps the Rams gain as LaFleur’s short time in the NFL has been very productive, especially coming off a season with an historically great offense and a trip to the Super Bowl.
It is abundantly clear with the Rams recent offensive hires that the number one priority is to get something out of Jared Goff, which is understandable because the team gave away a good chunk of their future in order to draft him last season. LaFleur and head Coach Sean McVay have their work cut out for them in that regard considering Goff had just about as bad a rookie campaign as one could have posting just five touchdowns and seven interceptions. Granted, former head coach Jeff Fisher didn’t allow him to take first team reps until late in the season and ran an offense that didn’t believe in the forward pass. Management needs to know sooner rather than later if Goff is really a bust or merely a victim of circumstance and both LaFleur and McVay have demonstrated that they can get the most out of their talent. Ryan won his first league MVP last season at the age of 31 putting up his best season yet as a pro and Kirk Cousins is a marquee free agent this spring (assuming Washington doesn’t extend him).
The majority of LaFleur’s success came under Kyle Shanahan but his resume indicates now is his chance to spread his wings. For McVay, this is a smart hire because the two got to know each other in Washington where McVay was a tight ends coach while LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach. This eases the transition process and at least indicates that they are already somewhat on the same page. Thus far, the Rams have done a great job at altering their coaching staff in order to at least try and bring their offense into the 21st century.
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