NFL Coaching Matters: 2022 Los Angeles Rams Offense and Coaching Staff Preview

July 28, 2022

Eli Grabanski breaks down the 2022 Los Angeles Rams' coaching staff in search of buy-lows, fantasy football sleepers, and risers based on play-calling and historical data.

After every NFL season, NFL teams take the time to evaluate not only the players but also the coaching staff and front office as well. While many teams choose to retain the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, a few other teams opt to go in a new direction with their coaching staff.

The Los Angeles Rams saw former offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell leave to be the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, but otherwise, they will be bringing back many of the key coaching staff members from 2020. Sean McVay will return as the Rams' head coach and Raheem Morris will be back as the team's defensive coordinator. Liam Coen will be the new offensive coordinator, replacing Kevin O'Connell.

This article will look at the potential impact this coaching staff will have on the players and try to pinpoint the Rams players' fantasy values in it.

The Baseline

To get a better understanding of the value the Rams coaches bring to this team, we can look at the NFL league averages in each of the past two years in a variety of statistical categories and then compare them to the averages achieved by the Rams coaches. Here are 'The Baseline' NFL league averages over the past couple of years:

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Defense Impact

Previous Coaching Staff

In order to get an understanding of how the Los Angeles Rams fantasy players may be impacted this year, we also need to look at a key member of the Los Angeles Rams' previous coaching staff: former offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell. By doing this, we will have a better understanding of where the new regime is starting from and where the primary changes will occur.

Former Offensive Coordinator: Kevin O'Connell

Kevin O'Connell spent three seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator – one year for the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins (2019) and two years for the Los Angeles Rams (2020-2021). Below are some statistics from Kevin O'Connell's time in an offensive coordinator or head coaching role to get a better understanding of where the new Rams offensive coordinator will be starting from.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

2022 Offense

2022 Head Coach: Sean McVay

Sean McVay has been the Los Angeles Rams head coach since 2017. Prior to joining the Rams, McVay spent three seasons (2014-2016) as Washington's offensive coordinator. Given McVay's offensive background in coaching and his role as the team's primary offensive play-caller, let's take a look at what his offenses have done in the past at the NFL level to get a better understanding of how the Rams' offense may look in 2022.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Sean McVay Takeaways & Expectations

Over the course of Sean McVay's 129-game career in an offensive coordinator or head coaching role, his offenses have averaged 35.84 passing attempts per game. This passing volume is slightly more than the amount an average team provides, which bodes well for Matthew Stafford's fantasy value in 2022.

Besides passing, it is also important to look at the rushing usage of McVay's quarterbacks over the course of his career as an offensive coordinator or head coach. Over the course of his career, McVay's quarterbacks have averaged 2.61 carries per game.

Sean McVay's offense historically has been slightly above-average in providing passing opportunities for his team and given his quarterbacks a slightly below-average number of rushing attempts. Overall, Matthew Stafford should be a solid value in fantasy leagues and be valued in the low-end QB1/high-end QB2 range of fantasy drafts.

Looking at the running back position, Sean McVay has been solid in utilizing the group. Over the course of his career, McVay's tailbacks have averaged 22.27 carries, 96.43 rushing yards, and 0.77 rushing touchdowns per game on the ground.

On the ground, these numbers are above average for a running back room and fairly encouraging to see if you are planning on rostering one of the Rams running backs in your fantasy league.

Besides the amount of volume (carries) on the ground that McVay has historically provided, we also need to consider how that volume has been distributed over the course of his career – is McVay rolling with a bell-cow or a running back by committee approach?

Examining the data, Sean McVay has done a great job feeding his lead back in nearly every single season he's been an offensive coordinator or head coach – with the exception of 2020. This is a great sign for Cam Akers's potential usage on the ground in 2022.

The final aspect we should look at regarding Sean McVay's running backs is how much he has traditionally utilized them as pass-catchers. Over the course of his career, McVay's running back room has averaged 5.29 targets per game – which is below average.

Perhaps most concerning about this information is that it isn't just one year he has been below-average in utilizing his running backs in the passing game – it's every year he's had a significant say in the offense. This is a little frustrating to see if you are rostering Cam Akers in your fantasy league(s). But overall, taking into account all three factors mentioned in this article, it's clear that McVay still helps make this a solid situation to invest in.

Looking at the wide receiver position, McVay's offense has provided his wide receivers with 22.02 targets per game over the course of his career in an offensive coordinator or head coaching role.

This career average is above-average compared to other play-callers, and he's utilized the position even more in recent years with the Rams' wide receiver room averaging 22.81 targets per game in 2020 and 25.41 targets per game in 2021. This is great news if you are rostering one of the Rams receivers and means that there's room for multiple Rams wideouts to be fantasy-relevant in 2022.

Lastly, McVay's historical usage of tight ends is pretty good. Over the course of his 129-game career as an offensive coordinator or head coach, Sean McVay's tight end room has averaged 7.52 targets per game.

This career average is pretty solid and suggests that Tyler Higbee should be in the TE2/streamer conversation all year in McVay's offense for the 2022 NFL season.

2022 Offensive Coordinator: Liam Coen

Prior to becoming the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator in 2022, Liam Coen had worked as an offensive coordinator at the college level. Below are some statistics from his career as an offensive coordinator for Maine (2016-2017) and Kentucky (2021) to try and get some insight into the influence Coen may have on the Rams' offense.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Liam Coen Takeaways & Expectations

While Sean McVay is expected to be the primary offensive play-caller of the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, it's also important that we look at the type of offenses his offensive coordinator, Liam Coen has previously been a part of as an offensive coordinator at the college level just in case he needs to fill in for McVay at any point next season.

During his 34-game career as an offensive coordinator at the college level, his offense averaged 30 passing attempts per game. Besides the passing numbers, for fantasy football purposes it's also important to look at some of the rushing numbers of Coen's quarterbacks during his time as an offensive coordinator at the college level. In his 34-game career as a college offensive coordinator, Coen's quarterback room has averaged 5.44 rushing attempts per game.

While the college level is different from the NFL level, this usage suggests that Coen may favor passing less and running more with his quarterbacks than head coach Sean McVay.

Jumping to the running back position, it's pretty difficult to compare the college level to the NFL since there can be more blowouts in the college game but we will do our best to project how Coen would potentially use the Rams tailbacks if he is the primary play-caller. In the 34 games that Coen was a college offensive coordinator, his running back room averaged 29.21 carries, 154.21 rushing yards, and one rushing touchdown per game.

While the college game doesn't translate directly to the pro game, there's a good chance that Liam Coen would give his running backs more work on the ground than Sean McVay if he ever had to take over play-calling duties. Besides the number of carries, we also need to look at the distribution of carries in order to determine a player's fantasy ceiling. So in terms of the distribution of carries, how often is Coen going to give the ball to one player versus rolling with a running back by committee approach?

Examining the data, it seems that for the most part, Liam Coen has preferred to feed his lead back on the ground rather than go with a running back by committee approach. This is great news if you have Cam Akers because it means if Coen ever has to temporarily take on play-calling duties Akers would see a lion's share of the carries on the ground.

The final aspect we should look at concerning Liam Coen's running backs is how much he has traditionally utilized them as pass-catchers. Over the course of his 34-game college coaching career, Coen's running back room averaged 2.21 receptions, 18.74 receiving yards, and 0.18 receiving touchdowns.

Overall, if Liam Coen has to take on play-calling duties for the Los Angeles Rams at any point during the 2022 season, we should expect very similar usage for the Rams running backs with the only likely change being a slight uptick in carries.

Looking at the wide receiver position, Coen has seen his wide receiver room combine for 12.88 receptions, 177.38 receiving yards, and 1.29 receiving touchdowns per game over the course of his 34-game career as a college offensive coordinator.

As stated earlier, it's difficult to compare the college level to the NFL level. Having said this, if he takes on play-calling duties it would be difficult to see Liam Coen providing more work for the Rams' wide receivers room than the offense last year. Regardless of who is calling the plays, it seems likely that both Cooper Kupp and Allen Robinson will be fantasy-relevant in 2022 and are good players to consider drafting at their current ADPs.

Finally, Coen's historical usage of tight ends at the college level left a lot to be desired. Over the course of his career as a college offensive coordinator, Coen's tight end room averaged 1.76 receptions, 17.68 receiving yards, and 0.26 receiving touchdowns per game. From a fantasy football perspective, Tyler Higbee probably wouldn't be much more than a streamer if Coen takes on play-calling duties at any point during the 2022 season.

Fantasy Relevant Players: Matthew Stafford, John Wolford, Bryce Perkins, Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson Jr., Kyren Williams, Jake Funk, Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson II, Van Jefferson, Tutu Atwell, Tyler Higbee, Kendall Blanton

2022 Defense

2022 Defensive Coordinator: Raheem Morris

Raheem Morris joined the Rams as a defensive coordinator in 2021 after a year of serving as the Atlanta Falcons' interim head coach during the 2020 season. Morris also previously spent time as a head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011. Because of his defensive background let's take a look at some defensive statistics from Morris's time in a defensive coordinator or head coaching role.

Other Notable Assistants

Special Teams Coordinator: Joe DeCamillis - Joe DeCamillis joined the Rams as a special teams coordinator in 2021. He's previously been a special teams coach for the Denver Broncos (1988-1992), New York Giants (1993-1996), Atlanta Falcons (1997-2003), and Jacksonville Jaguars (2007-2008) as well as a special teams coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys (2009-2012), Chicago Bears (2013-2014), Denver Broncos (2015-2016), and Jacksonville Jaguars (2017-2020).

QB Coach: Zac Robinson - Zac Robinson will be the Los Angeles Rams' new quarterbacks coach (and pass game coordinator) after the position was left vacant in 2021. Robinson had previously served as an assistant quarterbacks coach (2019, 2021) and as an assistant wide receivers coach (2020) for the Rams. He also played quarterback at the NFL level for the Seattle Seahawks (2010), Detroit Lions (2010), and Cincinnati Bengals (2011-2013).

RB Coach: Ra'Shaad Samples - With Thomas Brown shifting over to tight ends coach, the team needed to hire a new running backs coach – Ra'Shaad Samples. The 2022 season will be the first time that Samples has coached at the NFL level. He previously worked as a running backs coach for SMU (2020-2021).

WR Coach: Eric Yarber - Eric Yarber has been the Los Angeles Rams wide receivers coach since 2017. He's been coaching since 1996 and has previously been a wide receivers coach at the NFL level for the San Francisco 49ers (2003-2004) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2010-2011).

TE Coach: Thomas Brown - With Wes Phillips leaving to become the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, Thomas Brown will move from running backs coach to tight ends coach. This will be the first time that Thomas Brown has served as a tight ends coach at any level. He previously worked as a running backs coach for Chattanooga (2012), Marshall (2013), Wisconsin (2014), Georgia (2015), Miami FL (2016-2018), South Carolina (2019), and the Los Angeles Rams (2020-2021).

OL Coach: Kevin Carberry - Kevin Carberry joined the Rams as an offensive line coach in 2021 after the Rams decided to move on from former offensive line coach Aaron Kromer. The 38-year-old Carberry has been coaching football since 2007 and most recently served as the run game coordinator and offensive line coach at Stanford.

DL Coach: Eric Henderson - Eric Henderson has been the defensive line coach for the Los Angeles Rams since 2019. He has been coaching since 2012, notably spending time as the assistant defensive line coach with the Los Angeles Chargers (2017-2018) prior to joining the Rams. Henderson will also serve as the run game coordinator in 2021.

ILB Coach: Chris Beake - The Los Angeles Rams are going from having just one linebackers coach (Chris Shula) to having an inside linebackers coach and outside linebackers coach. At inside linebackers coach, the team will be going with Chris Beake for the 2022 season. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Rams during the 2022 offseason, Beake worked for the San Francisco 49ers (1998-2003, 2010), Atlanta Falcons (2004-2006), Seattle Seahawks (2008-2009), Cleveland Browns (2011-2012), and Denver Broncos (2013-2021) in a variety of roles.

OLB Coach: Thad Bogardus - Besides hiring Chris Beake as the new inside linebackers coach, the Los Angeles Rams will bring in a new outside linebackers coach – Thad Bogardus. Bogardus has been with the Los Angeles Rams since 2017 in a variety of roles, most recently serving as an assistant linebackers coach (2021).

DB Coach: Jonathan Cooley - Former secondary coach Ejiro Evero left to become the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, and the team will bring in Jonathan Cooley to serve as the team's defensive backs coach. Cooley initially joined the Los Angeles Rams as a defensive assistant/quality control coach in 2020.

Enjoy this series? Be sure to check out all of the other 'Coaching Matters' team previews!

AFC North: Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals

AFC South: Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts

AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders

AFC East: Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets

NFC North: Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings

NFC South: Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West: San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, and Seattle Seahawks

Follow Eli Grabanski on Twitter: @3li_handles

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