When you’ve been around the game as long as guys like Bruce Arians and Sean McVay, it’s good to delegate a little play-calling responsibility.
Oh, wait, that’s only half right, since Arians was the head coach at Temple when McVay was born.
Still, the Rams rookie head coach let offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur call plays during the second half of Saturday’s preseason game against the Raiders, according to Rich Hammond of the Los Angeles Daily News.
The 31-year-old McVay is the youngest head coach in the league, and is showing that he’s at least considering adjusting. He called played the last two seasons in Washington, and his initial plan was to handle the duties himself this year with the Rams. But after the preseason opener, he said he struggled a bit managing the entire operation, so he wanted to tinker with letting LaFleur call plays.
He said “the anticipation” was that he’d hang onto the duties during the regular season, but stopped short of a firm declaration.
“I think the one thing that people should understand as well is [play-calling is] a collaborative effort,” McVay said. “Everybody’s on the headset, we’ve got a plan and ultimately somebody’s got to send it in to the quarterback.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to make the final decision, but I think it’s a representation of our staff as a whole when things go well, and that’s a credit to having good guys around you. But, I think right now, the plan is I am going to continue to [call plays]. Really it’s something that I enjoy, and I think it allows you to feel like you can be a lot more involved with the offense.”
The fact McVay wants to hang onto the responsibility is natural — it’s what he’s good at and the reason he got the job. But the fact he’s willing to consider alternatives can also be a good sign, because his new job is much more complicated than simple Xs and Os.