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In 2024, the Los Angeles Rams aren't doing so hot, starting the season off 1-4 due in no small part to a wild string of injuries, but one team who is having a fantastic start to the campaign is the Minnesota Vikings, who sit atop the NFC North at 5-0.
Why, you may ask, is this relevant? Well, because their head coach, Kevin O'Connell, used to work under Sean McVay and credits his former head coach for easing the NFL transition.
Asked about their time together in LA during his first press conference post-bye, McVay celebrated his success, noting he's proud of his former assistant for forging his own path.
“He has a great presence about himself. There are certain guys… I met Kevin at a camp a long time ago, and I knew who he was as a player. It's a small fraternity of people in coaching and I was always really impressed with the way that he had handled himself. And then we got connected and you could hear the capacity, the character of the human being, and his ability to relate in an authentic way to a bunch of different people,” McVay told reporters.
“When you have an opportunity to really… it wasn't even an interview; it was more of an opportunity to say, ‘Alright, we'd like to have you come here in 2020.' You could immediately feel there’s a leadership, there’s a connection, there’s a capacity for the game, there are different experiences that he had, whether it was as a player or as a coach, that he accelerated his progress. I'm not in the least bit surprised. He's a special guy, and I think even just watching the way that he's navigated his first two and a half years, you can't help but say what a great leader he is. You listen to the way that his staff talks about him, and none of that is surprising to me in the least bit.”
Sean McVay appreciates all the thriving ex-Rams coaches
While O'Connell may be the highest-profile member of the McVay coaching tree in 2024, he isn't the only one thriving outside of LA. From Zac Robinson in Cleveland to Raheem Morris in Atlanta, McVay is proud to have formed the NFL's great talent incubator.
“I think we just try to be an open environment. A lot of the ways that we do things are a reflection of where I felt like I was treated really fairly and really well in terms of the inclusivity that you can provide for everybody. I also think opening up the communication and the dialogue for guys to be able to have the comfort in disagreeing too. It's not just me… when we say it and you mean it, a lot of these guys have gone on to get other leadership roles outside of this building, you miss them tremendously, but they also contribute tremendously to what goes on in here,” McVay noted.
“Whether that's guys that you're asking about [Falcons Head Coach] Raheem [Morris], [Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator] Liam [Coen], Zac… you're watching all those guys [and Falcons Defensive Coordinator] Jimmy Lake do a great job yesterday as you sit there as a fan and watch. It's all part of the journey, and you use those things constantly. The most important thing is let's continuously improve and let's make impacts. Those guys impacted me, and I hope their experience here impacted them as well.”
Though he may not be considered the wunderkind offensive mind that every owner around the NFL wants a piece of moving forward, McVay has still produced talented coaches around the NFL, many of whom will surely branch off their own talent in the future, too. All things considered, that must feel pretty special.
