Jourdan’s recent podcast

[Elmgrovegnome]

She talked a bit about how well the Rams coaches had game planned for that Seahawks game. They had everyone on the team locked into it.

I’m glad to hear it. In the past it seemed that McVay had a bit of a ‘this is what we are, I dare you to beat me approach’. It lost them his first Super Bowl and he never really was willing to abandon his outside ZBS or his 11 personnel for several years. I hope that this is a sign of things to come.

She also said that they had the defense keyed into Geno’s calls and tendencies and they were able to exploit them. No more playing it safe on defense with the deep cushions, hoping not to let anything behind them? If so I am going to love this season, win or lose. It’s too frustrating to watch them give games away.

 

[shovelpass]

Jourdan put out a great article 2 weeks ago about the potential change in coverage. Definitely worth a read.
https://theathletic.com/4797588/2023/08/31/rams-secondary-defense-philosophy/

“You want to play stickier. And I think it’s imperative that you find out who can play stickier,” said defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, confirming those concepts.

 

[Corbin]

Jourdan put out a great article 2 weeks ago about the potential change in coverage. Definitely worth a read.
https://theathletic.com/4797588/2023/08/31/rams-secondary-defense-philosophy/

All I’ve asking for since he’s been here. That old school shit doesn’t work anymore tbh. That is your new prevent style.

It was glorious watching WR’s be challenged on the LOS Sunday. Can’t wait to watch this Sunday.

 

[Loyal]

All I’ve asking for since he’s been here. That old school shit doesn’t work anymore tbh. That is your new prevent style.

It was glorious watching WR’s be challenged on the LOS Sunday. Can’t wait to watch this Sunday.

"It was a Pleasant Surprise" ~ @OldSchool

 

[OldSchool]

"It was a Pleasant Surprise" ~ @OldSchool

Kind of funny a few of us said last year we didn't have the players to press coverage more. A few changes in the secondary and a bit more experience and we come out if the gate aggressive

 

[OldSchool]

But don't tell ond they played good I think I just read he wants to bench our top 3 cb! Seems big rob might be safe now

 

[hotanez]

But don't tell ond they played good I think I just read he wants to bench our top 3 cb! Seems big rob might be safe now

Yeah actually it's not Morris but it's because Pleasant is doing what I've been saying all along.
OND

 

[oldnotdead]

Yep and I have been

 

[Merlin]

Aside from our injury and personnel issues last season it felt to me like our coaching staff wasn't up to snuff. And the areas where we had the biggest problem were areas where McVay had gotten creative in moving coaches around. Moving our RB coach to TE and making a weak hire as a replacement at RB led to two positions stagnating. Moving our LB coach to the secondary and relying on the DC primarily to supplement him led to chaos on the back end defensively.

From there we could get into why McVay didn't overcome those shortfalls himself on offense or Morris on defense, and that's a conversation in itself, but it doesn't really matter because the season was mostly over by the time he started to make those types of moves like putting the RB coach back where he should have been.

This offseason was really interesting because it had more examples of McVay going outside his circle in his hires with two guys from the Cheatriots petri dish. Offensively those felt a lot like the Staley hire to me, in that he went out and pulled in specific shit he wanted via those coach hires, to enable him to make changes to scheme and probably other things like preparation, mentality, etc. And in this situation, just like with the Staley hire, there seems to be instant return on that fresh blood.

Pleasant of course is simply an excellent hire and if this young secondary produces over the year like they've started Morris might find him to be a competitor in the HC job market. Because teams know what they're doing in terms of seeing how terrible our secondary was last season so if these guys play tight and together alone he's going to get a lot of cred in NFL circles.

Lastly OC feels like a big upgrade too. Nothing against Liam but this is a results based business and at no point last season did I feel like I was witnessing a unit with a masterful hand behind it. IMO even though the offense is McVay's pride and joy, which is to say the side of the ball where he doesn't fuck around, I think he taps heavily into his OC and if the guy isn't quite up to snuff it comes out on the field.

So for me I think this past offseason will go down as a key window for McVay in terms of reinventing his offense and reestablishing the type of defense he wants his team to play. And going forward I suspect he's going to be more decisive with his staff, more like he is with the players. In other words as a young coach he learned a ton from that losing season and it probably made him better.