The Los Angeles Rams hired coach Sean McVay in 2017. He has been a hit for the organization ever since. Not only that, but his assistant coaches get hired at a high rate.
Zac Taylor was in the Super Bowl last year. Matt LaFleur appeared in the NFC title game in 2020. Brandon Staley is in his second year with the Chargers and is poised to be a threat in the AFC. And Kevin O’Connell went to the Vikings this offseason.
Assistants of McVay seem primed to have head coaching careers.
The Dolphins found their man
The Miami Dolphins interviewed Thomas Brown for their head coaching vacancy this offseason. The team chose Mike McDaniel for the job, but it would make sense that Brown received more opportunities in the future.
Brown coached several, now professional, talents today on the collegiate level. One of these players is Dolphins running back Sony Michel, who was also coached by Brown in 2021. Michel talked up his former coach in a recent interview.
“I’ve been around great coaches; I’ve been coached hard throughout my career and throughout my time playing football,” Michel said via Jourdan Rodrigue. “But Thomas (Brown) is one who is still in it. He’s still running drills. He’s not just telling us ‘hey, go run this drill.’ He’s showing us how to run the drill full-speed (…), he’s one of us while also teaching.”
The road to success
For now, Brown changed his position on the Rams coaching staff. He was the running backs coach in the prior two seasons but is now the tight ends coach. McVay had his motives for making the switch to Brown’s position.
“The more exposure that you get to different spots, the more versatile and better coach you’re going to become,” McVay said. “For me, one of the most valuable things that I ever did was coaching the tight ends.”
McVay seems to be setting up Brown on the same path he took to be the phenomenal coach he is today. The road that McVay took to success is the one that Brown is on.
1 Comment
It is an interesting take by McVay, because for a long time the TE coach was where they put the rookie coaches who didn’t know anything. The reasoning was you were one of the least utilized players on the field and in time where most teams based out of 21 personnel, you were responsible for one guy on the field. Not a ton of responsibility. I’m guessing McVay’s logic is that coaching TEs now means you have to know everything about the pass protections and run blocking scheme, and the wide receiver routes and secondary coverage schemes. The TE coach responsibilities have expanded along with the position’s importance on the field.