All the confetti has fallen to the turf at SoFi Stadium. The Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams are basking in their deserved glory, winners of their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
After the team packs up for the offseason, revels in their upcoming parade through the streets of Los Angeles, and the dust finally settles, will they need to find a new head coach?
No one really saw it coming, but one can’t ignore the implications from the simple two-word quote from Rams head coach Sean McVay. When asked about his own coaching future, he simply stated, “We’ll see.”
The thought of a season-opening Thursday Night Football broadcast featuring a Super Bowl Champion without its head coach is a surprising one. McVay was just five years old the last time it happened was when Bill Parcells shockingly stepped down in May of 1991 after his Giants won the Super Bowl.
Sean McVay’s potential uncertainty is a ray of light for Eric Bieniemy in the NFL.
However, when we zoom in a little bit, there are some cracks in the foundation for the Rams, and McVay might be playing his cards right. There are several reasons to think that now is the time to get out of L.A.
Offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell has been hired to be the head coach of the Vikings. Defensive assistant Ejiro Evero is headed to a promotion as the new defensive coordinator in Denver. Now there is strong speculation that offensive assistant Wes Phillips could become O’Connell’s offensive coordinator in Minnesota.
After reconstructing the coaching staff, the Rams have some work to do with their roster. Left tackle Andrew Whitworth is highly likely to retire. All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald may as well. It is entirely possible that pending free agents Von Miller, Odell Beckham Jr., and Darious Williams move on to new teams, and replacing them will be particularly difficult after the team dealt away multiple future draft picks in pursuit of this year’s ring. Los Angeles only has a late 3rd-round (compensation) pick, a 5th-rounder, and two 7th round picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. And they have also traded away their 1st-rounder and 4th-rounder in 2023, too.
With a great reputation and pedigree, McVay can bide his time waiting for his dream job coaching professionally or collegiately in the state of Ohio, where he was born and also played college football, or in Georgia, where he graduated high school.
It’s all conjecture from here, but maybe McVay wants to explore other areas of the game, like being an analyst or commentator. His first NFL jobs were under former head coach and analyst Jon Gruden, who may have taught McVay a thing or two about the strategy of walking away and coming back when the time was right. Regardless of McVay’s reasoning, it’s plausible to see the Rams scrambling to replace their head coach this spring.
That’s where this all fits in with the Kansas City Chiefs. Enter Eric Bieniemy.
The Chiefs offensive coordinator has been discussed exhaustively as a head coaching candidate with nothing to show for it. For four consecutive offseasons, Bieniemy has become the most overlooked coaching commodity in years and the only path in front of him seemed to be to return to the Chiefs—yet even that is at a crossroads.
Recent reports stated that Andy Reid and Bieniemy were scheduled to have a clearing of a conversation to better understand Bieniemy’s future goals and what would be best for all parties in ’22. But what if another scenario opened up?
A job in the state of California with a star quarterback is a dream come true for Bieniemy, and the Rams already went for a well-respected offensive mind the last time around. Could one man with an uncertain future replace another? Given Bieniemy’s inability to grab a single job so far, it feels silly to think he could land the biggest fish of all and take over a Super Bowl team. And McVay hasn’t decided anything.
This year’s coaching carousel seems to have passed Bieniemy by, but will another position open up? Time will tell.