Sean McVay met with reporters on Thursday to discuss a variety of topics, from his coaching hires to the upcoming NFL combine. He also mentioned the uncertain futures of Stetson Bennett and Joe Noteboom, while also making it clear that the Rams want to bring back Coleman Shelton.
It was an informative press conference, shedding some light on the Rams’ upcoming decisions this offseason. Here are the eight biggest takeaways from McVay’s comments this week.
1
Rams don't view NFL combine as being overly important
For the fourth consecutive year, McVay will be skipping the NFL combine. He and his staff will remain back home in Los Angeles, studying prospects from afar. It’s not that they don’t see value in the scouting combine, it’s that they use it mostly for measurables. McVay noted that the Rams can scout players on tape and while watching combine coverage on TV, putting a much greater emphasis on film study over speed and testing numbers from Indianapolis.
“I’m not going to the Combine. I think the most important thing is what the tape looks like and then, what is the vetting and the human being?” McVay said. “If there’s anything that has consistently become clear when you reflect on the seven years and as Les (Snead) and I, and really our organization, continue to identify the types of players that we want in our building, and really types of people in general, it’s people that are tough. It’s people that can not allow the outside circumstances to dictate their response. But there’s a steadiness, there’s a commitment to core values and principles, they love football, they want to keep the main thing the main thing. Then as it relates to just the evaluation, the tape is the best guide. I do think that those other things are good metrics, but we’re asking guys to play football not run track and field. It is something that’s a measurable, but it’s not as important as some of the other things for us.
“There’s value in it so I don’t want it to be misunderstood that there’s not. But if you said we’re able to stay back, stay at home, really dive into the film and the tape, which ends up being the best indicator for how we evaluate these players, we just felt like it was more efficiently utilized in terms of our time staying back. And a lot of this stuff is filmed and so you can get that and shoot, “NFL Network” does such a good job covering it, you flip it on and you feel like you might as well be on the field with some of these drills.”
2
McVay was flattered by competition committee invitation
McVay and Sean McDermott were the latest members added to the NFL competition committee, which helps with implementing new rules and protocols based on suggestions from teams around the league. McVay said he was flattered that Roger Goodell asked him to be on the committee, making him one of just eight members on it.
“Maybe I won’t burn my timeouts in the second half so early,” McVay joked. “I’ll learn about that. Here’s what I’ll say. I’m humbled and I’m flattered that they would even consider to ask me. When you go to these league meetings over the last handful of years I’ve always been interested and intrigued about, OK, how can you affect positive change? How can you have an understanding of moving the game in the right direction? I think there are coaches and there are front office members that have done a great job of setting an example. When (Executive VP of Football Operations) Troy Vincent and (Commissioner) Roger Goodell reached out I was flattered. Kind of wanted to understand, alright, what are some of the commitments? How can I try to be a valuable contributor to that? Certainly looking forward to being able to learn and grow and see if we can help do some good things, but I was certainly flattered to be a part of that.”
3
Rams using first-round pick is "a big if"
Right now, the Rams are slated to pick in the first round for the first time since 2016. At No. 19 overall, it’s very possible they’ll either trade out of Round 1 entirely or ship that pick off to a team for a proven veteran the way they have countless times before.
McVay was asked about the Rams’ first-round pick and their roster needs heading into the important part of the offseason and even he’s non-committal about the team actually using its first-rounder.
“Oh, that’s a big if. Here’s what I would say, that’s exactly what we’re working through right now,” he said. “Figuring out the best way to try to be able to use those different avenues to create as competitive of a team as we possibly can and try to improve. I think there were a lot of positive steps last year and you do look at it from a scenario of, alright, how do we wisely do that? How do we make sure that we’re identifying the types of players, whether that be via free agency. There are obviously trades as a possibility. And then Les and his group do such a great job of being ahead of the curve in regard to what the landscape of the draft looks like.”
4
Rams don't feel they have a backup QB on the roster
With Carson Wentz hitting free agency and Stetson Bennett’s future very much up in the air, McVay said the Rams don’t feel they have a backup quarterback on the roster right now. It sounds like the team hasn’t been in contact with Bennett, which isn’t encouraging to hear, bringing into question whether he’ll ever play for the Rams again.
“Yeah, I think the first thing is you connect with him, which we’ll do at the appropriate time,” McVay said of Bennett. “You figure out, where are you at and is this something that we feel like is best for him and for our football team to bring him back into this ecosystem? Those will be conversations that we will have. I think once we have a better idea of what we’ll do with that, then that’ll give clarity. You do make sure that you knowâ¦right now, we got Matthew Stafford and really in our minds, we don’t have a backup quarterback that’s on this roster. We’ll see what that looks like in terms of how that affects Stetson and the draft or free agency. But was really appreciative of all the good things that Carson Wentz brought to the table, especially post-bye. I thought he did a great job against the Niners and gave great looks to our defense week in and week out and I know all of our coaches and his teammates loved being around him.”
5
Rams working through options with Joe Noteboom
Noteboom has the fourth-largest cap hit on the team in 2024, carrying a charge of $20 million. Cutting him right now only nets the Rams a savings of $5 million, while a post-June 1 release would result in a $15 million savings. It's possible the Rams will keep him in 2024 but it's hard to see that happening at his current cost.
McVay said the team is working through its options with Noteboom right now, saying "we'll see" what his future looks like.
"We’re working through all those things right now," McVay said. "I think it’s so impressive what Joe did do, the toughness that he showed last year, the ability to really play all four spots with the exception of center. We are working through that. We’ll see what that looks like as it relates to his status with us moving forward. But Joe’s been a big-time contributor and certainly we wouldn’t have done a lot of good things without Joe and his ability to play right tackle, left tackle, right guard. If he had to play left guard, I’m sure he could but fortunately we had a rookie and (OL) Steve Avila that came in and played a hundred percent of the snaps. And so real credit to Joe for what he was able to do and the many contributions he had last year."
6
McVay is excited about having John Streicher as game management coordinator
One of the most fascinating hires made by McVay and the Rams this offseason was Streicher, who they brought in as the game-management coordinator. Streicher was Mike Vrabel's right-hand man in Tennessee, helping with game management and timeout usage, which are two key areas of improvement for McVay.
The Rams head coach is excited to have Streicher on his staff, noting his impressive reputation with the Titans and understanding of the game.
"Not use my timeouts in the second half until I need to," McVay joked about his vision for adding Streicher. "No, really, here’s what I would say when I look at myself and really our team from just an after-action review, you say, 'alright, where’s the game going? Where are things that you can do to try to separate yourself and winning those margins?' This game management or this game management coordinator, there’s a select group of people that have really earned a great reputation around the league. They have calls on Wednesdays throughout the season. They’re really passionate about trying to be able to give each team an edge. And you look at what this guy’s reputation has been in Tennessee, working closely with Mike Vrabel. And I think from afar, I’ve always admired and respected the way that they handle situations. There’s an innate understanding of the rules and how to be able to use those to your advantage, clock management, some of the situational things that do end up coming up. He’s done a lot of different things for Tennessee, but when they ended up having to transition, he was a guy that became available and you wanted to be able to jump at the opportunity to get him on board because I think he’s going to be really valuable. I’ve really enjoyed being around him in the short amount of time and getting some exposure to just the passion he has for that specific part of the game while also having a big picture capacity for it schematically and then also being able to evaluate personnel. So that’ll be the focus and concentration. I think it’ll be evolving. We were sitting down the other day, and he was talking about all the different roles and responsibilities that he carried in Tennessee and a lot of those will be carry over. I thought it was important that we put somebody in that role to be able to be more consistent and help me be better for our football team and he’s somebody that I’m going to really rely on and I think he’s going to help us out a lot."
7
Rams want Coleman Shelton back in 2024
Shelton is in a unique spot because he has the option to void the final year of his contract in 2024 and become an unrestricted free agent. It was a clause in his contract if he played at least 55% of the snaps last season, which he did.
If Shelton feels he can a salary of more than $2 million next season, he'll likely opt out of his contract. However, the Rams are working with Shelton and his agent to potentially get a deal done that will keep him in Los Angeles for at least another season.
"Yeah, we would really like to get him back," McVay said. "I would imagine that’s the direction that they would potentially go. We’re proactively trying to be able to get that taken care of. He’s a guy that we want to move forward with. I thought he did a great job with his body of work last year, the communication, the toughness, the competitiveness, all the different ways that he was productive in both run and pass. I know (Vice President of Football and Business Administration) Tony (Pastoors) and Manager of Football Administration) Matthew (Shearin) are doing a great job of trying to be able to work with his representation to try to be able to get something done so that he can be our center and continue to lead the way upfront."
8
McVay still believes strongly in Chase Blackburn on special teams
The Rams' special teams unit was awful in 2023. It was the worst in the NFL, and though Blackburn was the coordinator of that group, it wasn't all his fault. The Rams had a new kicker, long snapper and punter this past season, two of which were rookies.
McVay retained Blackburn as his ST coordinator and explained that decision this week, saying that he believes in the coach and loves the resilience he showed in what was an otherwise difficult season.
"I believe in Chase and what I think I saw is that in the midst of a lot of those things, you’re evaluating not just the results, but the process and what the week looks like and the way that those players continue to believe in him," he said. "And then you’re saying, 'Alright, where are some of the things that we can identify to improve?' And I do think there’s the solutions from Chase and from being able to play better, to be able to tackle better, to be able to consistently figure out, alright, where can we take the next steps? But you look at some of the different things that we had to navigate with new players at key and critical spots and I appreciated just how steady he was in what was a challenging year. That’s when you learn about people and I learned a lot about him that made me say, 'You know what? I believe in this guy. I know that he’s going to continue to evolve, adapt.' I think we can do a better job of providing him with guys that can play more consistently. And he never said anything other than, 'Hey, I want to do better.' He took accountability and ownership, but I believe in Chase Blackburn."
