[Claremontram]

And the Rams are now a very nice destination for SB hungry vets too.

[Elvis]

[PARAM]

If I'm a TALENTED young coach, why would I want to go anywhere but the Rams. Its a fast track up the coaching ladder.

Fixed that for you ^^^^^^^

Schrager was talking about Cohen the second half of the year when the McVay tree was being discussed. Glad we got the guy. Everybody thought Morris would be gone after the season. During the Tampa game, they showed the 4 coordinators and said "they're all head coaching canidates" but the only one who got hired was O'Connell. I always believed that being an OC for a head coach who calls the plays didn't look as good on a resume. But apparently, you only have to be in the same building as McVay. Bienemy watches Andy Reid make the calls but Leftwich calls the plays in Tampa. Screwy.

I hope Thomas Brown is the run game coordinator and the OC after Cohen leaves.

[actionjack]

Jourdan Rodrigue
@JourdanRodrigue
The Rams have extended DL coach Eric Henderson, multiple sources said. Henderson, who is widely regarded among the top coaches at his position in the NFL, was in a contract year. Huge for the Rams to retain him as a player developer but also a big part of their pass-rush design.


ourdan Rodrigue
@JourdanRodrigue
·
3h
Replying to
@JourdanRodrigue
Henderson will also make a hire for asst. DL coach, FWIW, with Marcus Dixon now in Denver. Going to be another “coaching tree” to keep an eye on moving forward.

[actionjack]

Big move to extend Henderson, another reason for AD to run it back. I like how the coaching is settling out now...

[ramsman34]

Could this staff actually get better this season?? Me thinks so.

[69RamFan]

[Elvis]

Niners lost their DC last year, two important offensive coaches this year, pretty Rams like though, in the Rams case anyway, doesn't seem to effect the product on the field...

[HopHead Ram]

Offensively I think they can absorb loses like the Rams because everything basically goes through Shanny. I was surprised that the Defense didn't miss a beat though. That was disappointing. Ryans did a fantastic job

[Elvis]

https://theathletic.com/3153286/2022/02 ... ed_article

How Liam Coen found his way back to the Rams and Sean McVay

By Jeff Howe

Liam Coen only had one job in mind.

His ascension in the coaching ranks has been sharp. College and NFL teams had been clamoring to meet with the 36-year-old.

But if Coen was going to leave the University of Kentucky, where he just guided an offensive resurgence, it could only be for the Los Angeles Rams and head coach Sean McVay.

“This would be the only one I would be interested in leaving Kentucky for,” Coen told The Athletic.

And that’s how it happened. Coen originally worked for the Rams from 2018-20 as the assistant wide receivers and quarterbacks coach before he was hired last season as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator.

They reunited last week, as McVay tabbed Coen as his top offensive lieutenant. He replaced former Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, who just took over as the Vikings head coach.

“I’m really excited about going back and learning,” Coen said. “You don’t just learn from Sean. You learn from every single coach in the building. At any given moment, you can walk into an office and learn something. I’m really excited to go back and learn.”

Coen has always been selective with his coaching opportunities. The Rhode Island native and UMass record-setting quarterback bounced around the New England coaching circuit for seven years before he joined the Rams in 2018, thanks to numerous recommendations from former passing game coordinator Shane Waldron.

During his first stint in Los Angeles, Coen turned down an offer to become Boston College’s offensive coordinator and was a finalist for the same position at Colorado State. And since Kentucky’s season ended, the University of Miami pursued Coen to be its offensive coordinator, but he wasn’t interested in leaving Lexington. He also turned down the Saints’ request for an interview as their offensive coordinator.

That’s because the Rams — and McVay, in particular — were always the goal. Coen expressed interest in returning to McVay after O’Connell and the Vikings came to an agreement in early February. They conducted a two-hour virtual interview last Sunday, and Coen was onboard by Wednesday.

“You’re talking football,” Coen said of the interview. “That’s what is awesome about Sean. It’s not an awkward dialogue of questions and answers. It’s just an open dialogue and conversation about football. It makes you feel very comfortable in those situations. It worked out really well in terms of having some open dialogue about football, about some of the things we did here at Kentucky and the things they were evolving to in L.A. with Matthew (Stafford).”

McVay’s coaching tree has practically sprouted into a forest, but Coen was the first to take McVay’s offense into the college game. It surely worked, as Kentucky averaged 32.3 points per game — 10.5 points higher than 2020 and the third-largest output in school history — doubled its win total (10) from a year earlier and finished the season with a national ranking for just the second time in 37 years.

Coen continued to lean on McVay from across the country. They spoke every week during the season, and Kentucky’s offensive staff broke down the Rams’ film after every game. A number of Kentucky’s players began rooting for the Rams because they studied them so frequently.

“There was a natural dialogue that existed because some of the things we were doing offensively were similar to what they were doing in a lot of ways,” Coen said. “We went through some of the things we were doing and adding, and vice versa. We watched a lot of their film throughout the week. Once the NFL film got into the Kentucky system, we’d watch it, break it down and show our players. There was a natural evolution of me coming here and having to do things a little bit differently in the college game.

“There was definitely a lot of growth, a lot of growth in my personal life over the past year and a lot of growth in terms of my experience, the things I was able to learn from Sean and from the other Rams coaches and players during my time there. I learned so much from Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Jared Goff, (Andrew) Whitworth, (Tyler) Higbee. I learned so much from them that I was able to take as coaching points and teach the players. There’s natural growth that happens when you’re able to teach it personally, the firsthand experience and see what comes from it.”

Coen’s responsibilities will now shift a bit. He orchestrated the entire offense and called the plays from the sideline at Kentucky, but McVay has been the play-caller since taking over the Rams in 2017. It’s more of a collaborative effort in Los Angeles.

“We see things very similarly in a lot of ways in terms of the game of football and how we believe it should be played, some of those philosophical similarities,” Coen said.

Coen, who shared effusive praise for Kentucky’s program and head coach Mark Stoops, stayed in Lexington to help with the staff’s transition. He’ll move to L.A. in early March to get to work with the Super Bowl champions.

If the Rams continue to have success — their five consecutive winning seasons under McVay are a fair indicator — Coen might be the next McVay assistant to get a head-coaching job. Both of his prior offensive coordinators, Matt LaFleur (Packers) and O’Connell, were hired as head coaches. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was previously McVay’s quarterbacks coach. The track record is real, and they’ve had success with their subsequent teams.

Coen might have left for a year, but he stayed close with McVay and the Rams. He improved as a coach, gained confidence while calling the system and now has the long-coveted opportunity to help McVay run it.

“I truly, truly wanted to go learn again,” Coen said. “I had this year when I was able to put this system to paper and gain this experience. But everybody is going to evolve every year in the National Football League. To be able to go learn and be part of this organization again, that was the biggest thing.”