[TomSlick]

I probably shouldn't be, but I am somewhat surprised at the callousness and judgment from so many of you. The guy is a human being and brought so much joy to all of us. Give him a break. Whatever he decides I'm behind him.

I think we are all grateful for his accomplishments and wish him the best going forward.

[RedAlice]

I think we are all grateful for his accomplishments and wish him the best going forward.

Absolutely!

And if he needs the time off - he should take it. Just don't put the Rams in limbo or a bad situation by waiting too long to decide or making all of his issues so public.

That is not being judgemental. It's reality.

[TomSlick]

After watching yesterday's presser and reading the ESPN article that was published from last Summer (which by the way I dismissed as journalistic hyperbole at the time) I'm led to believe McVay needs a psychologist or "life coach" who can monitor his stress, time management, delegation ability, familial relationships etc.

The dude is 24x7x365 football and cannot effectively deal with losing. To read that he yells at his father, awakes at 2:45 AM, sits in an almost catatonic state after losing to Bill Belichick in the SB leads me to believe he needs someone to give him "couch time" so he can better cope with what it is an NFL HC has to deal with. Losing is as much part of the NFL landscape as winning. Hell .500 gets you in the playoffs so he really needs to learn not to hang himself on every loss.

I wish this drama didn't play itself out in the open as much as it has, but the Rams braintrust has to get him help and pull out all the stops "behind the scenes" so he can be at his best to be a HC but stay grounded and out of the dark place he goes to when he loses.

Here's what I would do:

1. Find that "life coach/psychologist" and require McVay go meet often with him/her. Put that life coach on the payroll as a full-time employee and make him/her available to the entire team and coaching staff. McVay needs to identify what he values most and set the priorities and needs help to not deviate from what he values like family and friends etc.
2. Hire an OC of his choosing and allow McVay, no make it mandatory that he must leave the building by a certain time each day.
3. Perhaps hire an Asst. HC who neither has any offensive or defensive responsibilities and only supports McVay and nothing else. He is second in command of the team and allows McVay to get away.
4. Continue with what the Rams have done in the past and not require McVay to attend the combine and Senior Bowl. Give him as much time as necessary to stay away from football in the off season.
5. Let the asst. HC run OTA's which is nothing more than glorified walk-throughs and keep McVay charged.
6. Identify clear lines of responsibilities. As an example the HC should not be burdened with the style and color of towels for the locker room (I use that as a sarcastic example but the HC shouldn't worry about extraneous BS stuff).
7. Stan and Demoff should attend the next owners meeting and ask the NFL for a new rule that lessens the required media availability for the HC. Does he really need to attend all of the media stuff as the practice week advances? Can the asst. HC handle some of those duties?
8. Eliminate the Monday night coaches show produced by the Rams (published on the teams website) allowing McVay to get out of the building earlier.

These are just some random musings, but it certainly sounds like he wants to coach he just needs some sound guard rails to keep him grounded and balanced and not too low when they lose. This can be accomplished with professional help.

Some interesting ideas presented here.

McVay and the RAMS had numerous opportunities to adjust McVay's schedule. The most obvious is delegate more work to the assistant coaches. Heck, the assistants will probably only be here for a year, so burn them out. Make the assistants show up early and leave late thus giving McVay more free time. That option was there, but he didn't take it.

As far as the NFL changing HC responsibilities, McVay seems to be the only one with time management issues so I'm not in favor of NFL required changes. Perhaps McVay's future should be as OC for some team thus removing some of the heavy lifting required of a HC. Not everyone is cut out to be a HC.

[PARAM]

After watching yesterday's presser and reading the ESPN article that was published from last Summer (which by the way I dismissed as journalistic hyperbole at the time) I'm led to believe McVay needs a psychologist or "life coach" who can monitor his stress, time management, delegation ability, familial relationships etc.

The dude is 24x7x365 football and cannot effectively deal with losing. To read that he yells at his father, awakes at 2:45 AM, sits in an almost catatonic state after losing to Bill Belichick in the SB leads me to believe he needs someone to give him "couch time" so he can better cope with what it is an NFL HC has to deal with. Losing is as much part of the NFL landscape as winning. Hell .500 gets you in the playoffs so he really needs to learn not to hang himself on every loss.

I wish this drama didn't play itself out in the open as much as it has, but the Rams braintrust has to get him help and pull out all the stops "behind the scenes" so he can be at his best to be a HC but stay grounded and out of the dark place he goes to when he loses.

Here's what I would do:

1. Find that "life coach/psychologist" and require McVay go meet often with him/her. Put that life coach on the payroll as a full-time employee and make him/her available to the entire team and coaching staff. McVay needs to identify what he values most and set the priorities and needs help to not deviate from what he values like family and friends etc.
2. Hire an OC of his choosing and allow McVay, no make it mandatory that he must leave the building by a certain time each day.
3. Perhaps hire an Asst. HC who neither has any offensive or defensive responsibilities and only supports McVay and nothing else. He is second in command of the team and allows McVay to get away.
4. Continue with what the Rams have done in the past and not require McVay to attend the combine and Senior Bowl. Give him as much time as necessary to stay away from football in the off season.
5. Let the asst. HC run OTA's which is nothing more than glorified walk-throughs and keep McVay charged.
6. Identify clear lines of responsibilities. As an example the HC should not be burdened with the style and color of towels for the locker room (I use that as a sarcastic example but the HC shouldn't worry about extraneous BS stuff).
7. Stan and Demoff should attend the next owners meeting and ask the NFL for a new rule that lessens the required media availability for the HC. Does he really need to attend all of the media stuff as the practice week advances? Can the asst. HC handle some of those duties?
8. Eliminate the Monday night coaches show produced by the Rams (published on the teams website) allowing McVay to get out of the building earlier.

These are just some random musings, but it certainly sounds like he wants to coach he just needs some sound guard rails to keep him grounded and balanced and not too low when they lose. This can be accomplished with professional help.

Great post.

[Elvis]

Jourdan does the touchy-feely psycho-babble left wing BS with the best of them.

Jourdan's great. She's a writer, and a good one. I was just pointing out that particular article didn't add anything new, facts wise...

[PARAM]

So if he doesn't coach another game for the Rams, where does he stand in terms of all time Rams head coaches? I'm only going to list the coaches from the time I began following the Rams. Sure there were 2 Championships prior to that, so I'll give kudos to Adam Walsh and Joe Stydahar.

George Allen (5 yrs) 49-17-4 (.729) 2 postseason appearances (0-2)
Chuck Knox (5 yrs) 54-15-1 (.778) 5 postseason appearances (3-5)
Ray Malavasi (5 yrs) 40-33-0 (.548) 3 postseason appearances (3-3*) *Lost SB
John Robinson (9 yrs) 75-68-0 (.524) 6 postseason appearances (4-6)
Chuck Knox (3 yrs) 15-33-0 (.313)
Rich Brooks (2 yrs) 13-19-0 (.406)
Dick Vermeil (3 yrs) 22-26-0 (.458) 1 postseason appearance (3-0) Won SB
Mike Martz (6 yrs) 53-32-0 (.623) 4 postseason appearances (3-4*) Lost SB
Scott Linehan (3 yrs) 11-25-0 (.306)
Steve Spagnuolo (3 yrs) 10-38-0 (.208)
Jeff Fisher (5 yrs) 31-45-1 (.409)
Sean McVay (6 yrs) 60-38-0 (.612) 4 postseason appearances (7-3) Lost SB, Won SB

I'd have to put him #1. Only Chuck Knox, in his first stint, made the postseason more often (100%) but what good is that if you get eliminated every year? The idea is to win the SB, so you gotta get there right? McVay 2, Vermeil, Martz and Malavasi 1, Knox 0. And if you add in Ground Chuck's second stint with the team, it makes McVay #3 in win pct.

If you include all games, regular and postseason, McVay is 13 games shy of having the most wins in Rams history. Would love to see him get that next year. Here's hoping.

[Hacksaw]

As @norcalramfan opined, some changes might be necessary moving forward. Not everyone is cut from the same cloth.
I think our coach internalizes more than he probably should and feels that 24 / 7 / 365 is required to win. It might be easier said than done to get him to dial it back despite it probably being the best thing for him. That is the prudent option though and the happier medium for all. IMO

[BobCarl]

We’ll all know the answer in good time.

It doesn't always work out that way.

Sometimes the truth is taken to the grave, just ask Franco Harris, he's the guy that shot Kennedy.

McVay is clearly distracted.

The press has a bigger problem with the McVay conundrum than McVay himself does, because most of them knows what the issue is, and they have to write their articles and do their shows with an elephant in the room.

Who, what, or where's the elephant? Ask Chris Shula.

[AvengerRam]

It doesn't always work out that way.

Sometimes the truth is taken to the grave, just ask Franco Harris, he's the guy that shot Kennedy.

McVay is clearly distracted.

The press has a bigger problem with the McVay conundrum than McVay himself does, because most of them knows what the issue is, and they have to write their articles and do their shows with an elephant in the room.

Who, what, or where's the elephant? Ask Chris Shula.

Blah, blah, blah...

In the end, he'll either be the Rams' HC in 2023, or he won't. We'll know in good time.

[AvengerRam]

I was referring to when this all began. I get your point now, you are referring to what he should do now...now that he has aired all his laundry to anyone who will listen.

He should bail. Clearly, his heart is not 100% on coaching. As others have stated, if you're considering retirement, no matter how brief, then your commitment is going to be suspect. It isn't fair to the organization and players to be anything less than your best effort.

Perhaps.

Its also possible that he needs to walk to the edge of the abyss before he realizes he does not want to jump in.