Six takeaways from McVay’s end of year presser

[dieterbrock]

Only if Goff can't handle competition.

Competition? You said pissing off Goff is by design.
On the competition thing, lets be clear, drafting a QB in mid rounds is not competition, trading for or signing a vet starter who is openly competing for the starter spot is an entirely different story.
Show me when the latter scenario worked out for a team recently. When the starter and backup are close to equal, how'd that work out? Didnt work in Philly with Foles and worse with Hurts. Sure didnt work in Tampa for Winston. This isnt about hurt feelings, this is about (potentially) McVay turning his back on his QB that has gotten him to the playoffs 3 of 4 years, and a SB. And now after he plays 2 playoff games with a broken thumb, he has to justify his position? Eff that.

 

[Merlin]

Competition? You said pissing off Goff is by design.
On the competition thing, lets be clear, drafting a QB in mid rounds is not competition, trading for or signing a vet starter who is openly competing for the starter spot is an entirely different story.
Show me when the latter scenario worked out for a team recently. When the starter and backup are close to equal, how'd that work out? Didnt work in Philly with Foles and worse with Hurts. Sure didnt work in Tampa for Winston. This isnt about hurt feelings, this is about (potentially) McVay turning his back on his QB that has gotten him to the playoffs 3 of 4 years, and a SB. And now after he plays 2 playoff games with a broken thumb, he has to justify his position? Eff that.

Oh good grief man. "COMPETITION" is basically bullshit let's be honest. I want them to give him competition to piss him off, light a fuckin fire under his ass, whatever you want to call it. Because there is no option we could bring in that beats Goff out IF he comes in and competes his ass off.

Now the second benefit of let's say them trading for Minshew and drafting a project like Ehlinger and bringing in "competition" is they have options IF Goff doesn't respond well. Or if he's just not gonna work with McVay.

And you can cite a jackass like Winston all day long but there are examples and this year a notable one is the Packers drafting QB last year which had the same effect on Rodgers who is having a renaissance season.

 

[Ewe83]

I don't know I feel like taking what McVay said and turning it to specifically mean that Jared has to' earn his spot' is a REACH. Some people just don't like Goff and never will and this made up QB controversy get's clicks. If anything McVay is just trying to light a fire under Goff but he's our starting QB and will be next season

 

[dieterbrock]

I want them to give him competition to piss him off, light a fuckin fire under his ass, whatever you want to call it

Well eff them if that's the attitude.
Purposely pissing him off? Because the team laid an egg?
Ridiculous, this isnt pop warner
If Goff needs a fire lit under his ass then shame on McVay for it.

 

[RamDino]

Well eff them if that's the attitude.
Purposely pissing him off? Because the team laid an egg?
Ridiculous, this isnt pop warner
If Goff needs a fire lit under his ass then shame on McVay for it.

Yeah, I gotta agree with this. McVay is blaming everyone, including himself, for not winning the super bowl? C'mon coach, talk about how proud you are of your guys, for toughing it out under difficult conditions like broken thumbs and torn ribs. Thank everyone for a great season and highlight the good things that happened this year... like the growth of guys like Darious Williams, Leonard Floyd, Morgan Fox, David Edwards... and the professional leadership of guys like Micheal Brockers, Aaron Donald, and Jalen Ramsey. And the emergence of Cam Aikers. The team went all the way to the divisional playoff game, and might have gone further if it weren't for injuries. But it was a good season, and McVay needs to understand that you can't act disappointed for not winning the super bowl every year. Trade players away if you want, but don't call them out for it in public. They did their best this year, and McVay should be proud of this team.

 

[dieterbrock]

Yeah, I gotta agree with this. McVay is blaming everyone, including himself, for not winning the super bowl? C'mon coach, talk about how proud you are of your guys, for toughing it out under difficult conditions like broken thumbs and torn ribs. Thank everyone for a great season and highlight the good things that happened this year... like the growth of guys like Darious Williams, Leonard Floyd, Morgan Fox, David Edwards... and the professional leadership of guys like Micheal Brockers, Aaron Donald, and Jalen Ramsey. And the emergence of Cam Aikers. The team went all the way to the divisional playoff game, and might have gone further if it weren't for injuries. But it was a good season, and McVay needs to understand that you can't act disappointed for not winning the super bowl every year. Trade players away if you want, but don't call them out for it in public. They did their best this year, and McVay should be proud of this team.

Thank you, much better said than I

 

[BatteringRambo]

We dinked for Cooks and dunked for Akers! Unless it was for Jefferson the Texans 2nd round pick. I'm happy. Yes a healthy Will Fuller type would have likely benefited us in there as well.

 

[PhillyRam]

This was the plan though, Cooks is gone and instead of trying to replace him, we’re gonna dink and dunk and hope somebody can break a big one. Unfortunately defenses figured that out too which made it even tougher

Became obvious in the Giants game. They covered all that horizontal stuff and dared them to go deep. Rams struggled all game, but eventually they hit Kupp down the seem for the knockout play....but to me it was obvious at that point that it was an issue. Texted my son, who was at college, about it... It was crystal clear that they needed to adjust, but they never really did.

 

[Ellard80]

This thread really in danger of becoming goff thread #10001

 

[Ellard80]

Sean didn’t realize this before the season?

I watched the presser and he never actually said that it was a problem - he said explosive players were a problem.

He never actually specified they didnt have a deep threat - if im remembering wrong someone can lead me do it.

 

[I like Rams]

Holy shit this is gonna be a long offseason....

 

[FarNorth]

Yeah and I'm sure it pisses Goff off too. Which is probably by design.


The philosophy will hopefully be go find playmakers. In this draft there's gonna be a guy or two who are high on the Rams board but get close to them. Get those guys and I don't care what position they play. We need big play types, guys who move the needle.

This offseason will be about the OL too. They're gonna improve Center and maybe move Hav to get some cap relief. I'd move Hav, and then I'd sign a FA at either OG or C (I have always wanted Scherff but apparently that will never happen lol). Edwards should be at RT IMO but they also have Evans.

If it's by design, imo it's bad design. If McVay wanted to light a fire under Goff he should have done it privately. Appears to me he may have inadvertently blurted out the "right now" at his press conference, then couldn't disown it. I can't believe it was a considered strategy.

Sure, Goff should be able to handle it. And yes, he was disappointing this year. But imo it's not good coaching and not a good sign for the future. Especially when the Rams have no clear path to replace Goff, in a qb competition or otherwise.

IMO McVay would have been better served taking responsibility for his own decisions and acknowledging that the offense had significant limitations instead of in effect blaming Goff for an offense that couldn't win enough plays to sustain drives and lacked playmakers to stretch the field. Then speak to Goff, not the press, about how he can better run an average offense at a higher level.

 

[PhillyRam]

I watched the presser and he never actually said that it was a problem - he said explosive players were a problem.

He never actually specified they didnt have a deep threat - if im remembering wrong someone can lead me do it.

He mentioned that the loss of Cooks was noticable and commented about his deep speed.

 

[TexasRam]

I guess the main thing that bugged me about the MCvay comment is he is such a good communicator and so aware of the importance of not pointing fingers at others and the precedence that sets for the rest of the team. Let's face it, you start pointing fingers as a coach and the rest of the players follow the lead of criticizing without considering the effect it might have. This has largely been avoided in the past due to Mcvays consistent approach of not pointing fingers and saying we will all look at film and see where we can get better starting with me and my play calling. He always directed criticism back to himself and shielded players. Not that these are snowflakes and can't handle correction because they do everyday in the film room, but teams do deteriorate when a culture of criticism of others is not checked especially in the public eye.

This is why I agree with others that Mcvays "right now" comment was not planned out. It was probably reaction that slipped out due to the fact that in reality Goff will need to be evaluated on a down year with some questionable play. I think Mcvays "everyone will be evaluated" is damage control. But in a very real way I do believe Mcvay does have a Rams first mentality because that literally is his job.

So in a conceptual big picture way he does need to start with what are all the possible options the Rams have to be an Elite level team. Goff being replaced might not be part of a realistic option, but Mcvays job is to start with considering all options, which is the right approach to take every year, otherwise you pigeon yourself in and are in danger of producing the same results each year.

I do believe Mcvay will conclude that they have to address the Center and TE blocking and can greatly improve if they do. Possibly new wrinkles to the offense as well because lets face it, the WR quick outs, screens, end arounds and TE/WR delay routes on the PA rollouts have become to predictable and defendable. Special Teams also needs a facelift.

But if he had Edwards, Donald and Kupp healthy in the GB game it may have been close and mean we are competing close to the top level. In my ideal world I move Corbett to center, find a Pro Bowl guard and maybe a second one to replace Edwards so he can kick to RT as some have mentioned. But I would also try real hard to find a Top blocking TE that can also do things in the pass game. Someone that can block, catch the ball consistently and not commit penalites.

 

[Merlin]

IMO McVay would have been better served taking responsibility for his own decisions and acknowledging that the offense had significant limitations instead of in effect blaming Goff for an offense that couldn't win enough plays to sustain drives and lacked playmakers to stretch the field. Then speak to Goff, not the press, about how he can better run an average offense at a higher level.

Honestly none of us know what McVay is thinking or how any of it went down. That's the thing and we're guessing based on reports that have leaked and what we've seen from the play call side, the whole Wolford thing and the thumb, etc.

I look at it like this... McVay is ultra competitive. He has a QB who he knows is highly talented but has struggled and regressed a bit. So for whatever reason a rift occurred and it could have been anything really or any combination of things. Then he gets eliminated by Lafleur and his Hall of Fame QB and he's thinking to himself "do I need to make a change here." I think it's that simple but again who knows.

Either way there's a good chance Goff returns and if so it's the competition type thing. Then there's a slight chance that things go the Rams way in trade, like let's say the Texans trade us Watson. But I think what's going to happen this offseason is McVay's gonna end up sitting down with Jared and he'll get a good swift kick in his ass. And for those who think that's not how things go when a head coach like McVay is pissed off, you're judging him from that nice guy press conference persona lol. I am certain he's a very demanding coach with his QBs.

 

[Ramlock]

I’m just laughing at another board where everyone covets Watson...the mental gymnastics by that crew is hilarious.

McVay’s playing mind games and doesn’t seem very good at it; the blame game is not “we not me”.

He’s better in other areas.

 

[Kevin]

We dinked for Cooks and dunked for Akers! Unless it was for Jefferson the Texans 2nd round pick. I'm happy. Yes a healthy Will Fuller type would have likely benefited us in there as well.

There is no such thing as a healthy Will Fuller. This guy is always injured.

 

[Ellard80]

He mentioned that the loss of Cooks was noticable and commented about his deep speed.

this must be a different presser then the one i watched.. ill have to watch it

 

[rdlkgliders]

All tose teams marked yes with competition at QB were pretty bad and have questionable talent at QB to begin with.

Love that McV is critical of and hold's accountable Players and himself. Accountability without change and a positve resolution
is pissing in the wind. Step up and move forward with honest assessment and positve produtive actions.

 

[Allen2McVay]

this must be a different presser then the one i watched.. ill have to watch it

McVay spoke after the game, then did a press conference two days later. Both are on the Rams’ site.