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Surging Rams need every layer of overhauled run game to carry them into playoffs

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/600568 ... ean-mcvay/

LOS ANGELES — When left guard Steve Avila arrived at the Los Angeles Rams’ facilities ahead of the 2023 season, he understood he was walking into the early weeks of a new schematic era.

Avila’s selection at No. 36 overall in that year’s draft was among the early decisions the team made that signaled a shift from a predominantly wide and middle zone run game, into a more concept-diverse and physical system.

The playbook would eventually feature a significant amount of duo and other inside and gap scheme runs, new motions specifically dedicated to their run game and even different pre-snap alignments than head coach Sean McVay had previously used such as the pistol formation.

Especially over the last few games, the recently healthy and surging 2024 Rams have gotten this reconstructed system moving once again. After a 1-4 start, they are 8-6 and in the lead in the NFC West.

McVay knows his offense has to use every layer of a multi-dimensional run game to make a legitimate playoff push.

“I think fully functional offenses have different parts of their pass game and run game that they can efficiently activate based on what is needed within that game,” he said after the second of consecutive Rams wins in five days — over the Buffalo Bills in Week 14, and the San Francisco 49ers on “Thursday Night Football” in Week 15.

In 2023, McVay — who had been known around the league for heavy use of the wide and middle zone run game in previous seasons — addressed his team as it arrived for training in the spring and early summer: The Rams would become more physical through their rushing scheme. While they would still stretch a defense horizontally at times with their zone runs, they wanted the ability to run right through them, too.

“One of the first things Sean said was he wanted to change the identity of the offensive line because he knew what we had in the backfield,” Avila said this summer. That was running back Kyren Williams, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick who emerged as the new leader in the evolving system in just his second NFL season — which also eventually prompted the Rams’ trade of previous No. 1 running back Cam Akers to Minnesota.

McVay had also hired Mike LaFleur as his new offensive coordinator, after LaFleur was fired from the same role with the New York Jets (LaFleur previously had experience under rival Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ run game, who ran their zone and some gap concepts out of heavier personnel packages). McVay and LaFleur hired offensive line coach Ryan Wendell and running backs coach Ron Gould.

McVay compared his early meetings in 2023 with LaFleur to the freshness of 2017, when he mapped out his first offense as a head coach with LaFleur’s older brother Matt — then McVay’s offensive coordinator, now the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

“We had watched each other’s tape. Everything is so easily accessible (to simply watch), but what’s the intent? What’s the personnel?” McVay said. “It was a lot of that stuff, but a good part of it too was Mike learned (what we had done), and then (we discussed how to) implement some of the different things that fit within the framework of our structure.” McVay also blended concepts acquired in New England and Buffalo by Wendell and tight ends coach Nick Caley into his existing system.

In August of 2023, the Rams traded with the Pittsburgh Steelers for guard Kevin Dotson — another player with a similar profile to Avila as a large-framed interior lineman. By the time Dotson got into the lineup in October, the only player left on the offensive line who was a throwback to the previous McVay run scheme era — smaller and faster, in order to effectively run the side-to-side zone concepts — was center Coleman Shelton. He departed in free agency in 2024.

During the hottest days of training camp in 2023, in part to establish a new level of physicality within his offense and in part to get a 14-member rookie draft class up to speed, McVay installed practice periods for what players called “gruelers”. The 18-, 19- and 20-play drives helped players with their conditioning, but also built toughness in the group especially so they could launch the new run scheme.

Through their first two games of 2023 the Rams managed just 2.9 yards per carry, but stuck to the run as McVay called many of the new concepts they had installed — in part to test what would stick against live competition. They ran variations of duo, sifting tight ends and receivers in long and short motions across the formation to either open gaps for Williams, or to completely move gaps to a different location along the line of scrimmage. They built passing concepts out of those motions, making defenders think a receiver was coming across the formation to block for a run and then instead peeling that receiver into a mid-range dig route off a play-action fake.

“There were definitely phases of experimenting with different things,” McVay said. “You look at the Seattle game (Week 1 of the 2023 season), we tried to get a bunch of different run schemes off. We got a bunch of runs off. We weren’t very efficient, but it did serve us well.”

That year, the Rams went from No. 20 in the NFL in gap run frequency to No. 6, and decreased their zone run frequency from No. 12 in 2022 to No. 26 according to Sports Info Solutions (they did run more middle and outside zone late in the season, and tied elements of that to their screen game).

The Rams finished the 2023 regular season No. 4 in offensive DVOA, and second in total rushing EPA according to TruMedia. Williams, a Pro Bowler and a second-team All Pro, finished with the third-most rushing yards in the league (1,144), was fifth in rushing touchdowns (12) and No. 1 among all running backs in success rate (46.9 percent).

This offseason, the front office extended Dotson on a three-year, $48 million deal and signed free-agent left guard Jonah Jackson to a three-year, $51 million contract. They wanted to build off what they started in 2023.

In signing Jackson, the Rams intended to move Avila to center (he had played the position well in college). Jackson missed most of the spring and then most of training camp with separate injuries. With two weeks left in the preseason, the coaching staff moved Avila back to left guard and Jackson took over at center. Jackson re-injured his shoulder in Week 2. After returning from injured reserve, the Rams tried Jackson at center once more but his replacement, rookie sixth-rounder Beaux Limmer, was playing more consistently so Jackson has been a backup since Week 11.

In training camp in 2024, several players (such as receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, Jackson and right tackle Rob Havenstein) dealt with injuries and the Rams had to manage how physical even their padded practices could really be.

That did not limit the information players received. Over the last few seasons, McVay has installed his entire run scheme — including concepts that may or may not ever get into a game plan — in spring OTAs and during training camp. That way, when certain concepts are preferred in a game plan in the heart of a season, players call back to what they already learned instead of building from scratch within a week.

“Once you go to training camp you install it all, and (you) run pretty much everything,” Havenstein said. “(When games begin) you pick and choose, ‘OK, what does this team do well? What does this team do well against this defense?’ and maybe you start the year with, ‘Hey this is what we’re gonna be. This is what I think we’ll do best at, this is what we run.’

“All of a sudden, maybe there’s just a change in how teams start defending us, (or) it turns out to be like, ‘we really kind of molded ourselves a different way’ as the season has gone on, the ebbs and flows of everything.”

In 2023 for example, McVay installed the Rams’ runs out of the pistol formation well before the season began. He called only a couple of those plays in the first half of the season — but then ran 105 plays out of the pistol from Week 7 onward, according to TruMedia. The pre-snap formation disguised their runs because Williams aligned directly behind Stafford, who in turn could be in a simulated shotgun where he could keep his eyes toward the defense. Pistol was helpful especially as the Rams started working more middle and outside zone back into their game plan — but still gave them the option to use play-action if they wanted to in the passing game, despite not aligning under center.

They could immediately access nearly all of their pistol package midseason because they had already learned it, even though they didn’t need those plays right away.

Dotson said that McVay, LaFleur, Gould and Wendell use a specific teaching method that helps players quickly access their “memory bank” of concepts as needed.

“You pretty much learn the playbook three times (between OTAs and the end of the preseason),” he said. “Then during the year, (when) they’re giving you the plays they don’t ever just assume that you know.”

Walk-throughs happen early in the day, and are separate from the practice itself. Nicknamed “meetings on the grass,” they are fast-paced. McVay jogs in and out of formations with the players and coaches and speaks closely to them so they can hear his instructions and adjustments. New plays or re-introduced concepts are connected by a word or a number or a pre-snap look to something players have already run.

“It’s like, ‘I might have taught you this play in the beginning of OTAs. We haven’t been using it, but this week we’re gonna need it. The fact that I taught you it one time — at least you know the basis of it.’ That’s how we go,” said Dotson. “We taught it, you don’t have to know it again until we need it.

“It’s gonna hit the ear, and we (have) put a word in that (tells me) ‘This is what I’ve got to do on this play.’ ”

During the jog-through installations, McVay reserves time for series’ of plays out of specific concept “buckets” — but before the period starts, he tells players to call whatever they want in randomized order from that bucket. Led by Matthew Stafford, they are in charge of their plays and communication with each other as McVay sits back, sometimes praising or quizzing players after a call, or seeking feedback from them, and other times moving the group to the next down and distance or next concept bucket.

“It’s like how in college you would get some flash cards or something, ‘let me jumble them up.’ You’ve been going over this pile of (cards). So now let’s jumble them up so you’ll know them out of order, it’s the same thing,” Dotson said. “It’s all in the same family, (he) just doesn’t want us to be stuck on knowing them in just one order.”

Stafford said those periods help with two-way communication between players and their head coach.

“Sometimes it’s good for us to hear (calls) straight from (McVay),” he said. “Other times it’s good for him to hear maybe from the guys up front and say, ‘What if we did it this way?’ It feels a little bit more natural.”

Injuries to Avila, Jackson, Havenstein, Nacua and Kupp (who activate much of the run game as blockers) as well as tight end Tyler Higbee in part limited the effectiveness of the Rams’ run game through much of 2024. While they ranked No. 7 in rushing success rate from Weeks 1 through 12, they were No. 18 in overall rushing EPA and only managing 3.9 yards per rush.

In Week 13 and in the middle of a shutout at the hands of the New Orleans Saints defense, McVay addressed his offense at halftime. They were about to run the ball as often as they could and with as much force as possible, he told the players. If they could make their plays, he’d keep calling runs.

Nine second-half carries later (of just 15 total in a limited-possession game), Williams finished with 104 rushing yards for 6.9 yards per carry, and a touchdown. He went on to carry the ball 58 times in Weeks 14 and 15 (two games in five days), finishing a three-game and 12-day stretch with 73 carries for 299 yards and three rushing touchdowns. Between Weeks 12 and 15, the Rams rank No. 6 in rushing EPA and second in rushing success rate.



In Week 15 against the 49ers, the Rams finally had their screen game fully back up and running (which especially helped that night in rainy conditions).

McVay and the staff consider some of their outside-blocking screens as extensions of the wider zone run game, and some inside-blocking screens as extensions of their middle zone and even inside runs. They want to manipulate many of the same areas on the field while mitigating a pass rush and allowing linemen to get off inertia-building blocks. Like many of their true run plays, they have a large selection of screen plays that often come out of one vanilla pre-snap look. They build wrinkles and even invert assignments in their screens from week to week, using the same teaching methods as they lean on when building out their rushing game plan.

When they transitioned to larger interior linemen with their draft selection of Avila, then traded for Dotson, the obvious benefits were the bulked-up protection of Stafford’s pocket and an ability to establish a much more physical run game for inside and outside runs. What wasn’t immediately clear was whether the players’ size would translate over to McVay’s all-important screen game. But in 2023 Avila especially showed an early knack for quickly moving into layered blocking downfield on those plays and the rest of the line kept pace with him.

“It boosts our ego that we can do everything,” Avila said. “There’s a lot of guys who aren’t as durable, who can’t move as well. I feel like everyone on the offensive line can. Big Rob (Havenstein) has the nickname ‘Fridge’, but it’s more like a fridge on wheels. That really helps our ego out a lot to know that we can do a lot of those different things. I take pride in moving fast.”

Against the 49ers, Dotson blew two defenders off their feet and went hunting for a third on a slick tunnel screen to Nacua that went 13 yards on second-and-10. The concept was borrowed by McVay from the Seattle Seahawks, whose offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb ran versions of in the NFL and as a college coordinator. McVay and the coaching staff made their own adjustments so that pre-snap it looks like any other Rams “will they run or pass?” play out of 11 personnel.



The point, said McVay, is that it could genuinely be anything: a duo run, a zone run, a passing play to a receiver out of motion, a screen. Therein also lies the point of overhauling their entire run game in the first place, starting with the two guards, a dynamic running back and a change in coaching and philosophy. What could they build out of that?

“It’s being able to have an open mind. You … don’t want to pigeonhole people into just being able to do one thing,” said McVay. “I think that’s the benefit of having really functional, athletic guards that have an incredible ability to be able to move and accelerate in space and be able to have close quarters contact with people. When you do have guys like that, that’s a real benefit — where you’re saying, ‘What can’t they do?’ ”