Getty Sean McVay jogs to the locker room in Green Bay on December 19, 2022.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay delivered one of three “home run” hires across the league for 2023, a former Super Bowl winning coach with the franchise wrote on Wednesday, July 5.
Mike Martz, the offensive coordinator behind the “Greatest Show on Turf” in the St. Louis days who also guided the Rams back to the Super Bowl two seasons later in 2001, spoke highly of McVay’s decision to hire Mike LaFleur as his offensive coordinator in a column for The 33rd Team.
Martz praised the hire by calling the move one that gives McVay “another set of eyes” for the Super Bowl 56 winner, while adding “and that’s healthy” for McVay.
Martz Believes His Persona Correlates to McVay’s
Martz says he feels relatable to McVay in regards to having a similar coaching persona trait.
“I’ve been in a situation where McVay’s personality, I think, and I was a little bit like this myself as head coach, where he’s going to be in there involved most of the time with the offense. He’s just going to tinker, and he just can’t help it. He’s a great teacher and clearly understands what he’s doing. McVay understands the system at the highest level and is very detail-oriented. He’s the kind of guy I respect as a football coach,” Martz wrote.
But, the former Rams head coach added: “The problem is: How big is the scope of his background? There are some different ways of doing some things that could help. Since he’s a young coach, he might not have seen some stuff before. How do you deal with that when making game-time adjustments?”
Martz pointed out one example involving McVay — his first-ever Super Bowl appearance as a head coach.
“For instance, in the Super Bowl, when New England came out with a five-down front. What are some ways of dealing with that at halftime? What changes can you make? You know, those kinds of things,” Martz said.
That’s why he believes luring in the former New York Jets offensive coordinator is a smart move.
“So, they brought in LaFleur because he has experience running a different offense. McVay hired LaFleur based on the latter’s knowledge of the San Francisco 49ers‘ offensive system,” Martz said.
How Splice Between LaFleur and McVay Could Work, Per Martz
Martz’s mention of LaFleur’s time with the Niners was when he was one of the first assistant hires for rival head coach Kyle Shanahan in 2017. LaFleur went on to coach up the tight ends, wide receivers and handled passing game coordinator duties.
Martz believes there could be elements of that Shanahan offense this season with LaFleur’s arrival.
“McVay is going to marry into that system and find out how they do things,” Martz said. “How do they succeed year in and year out no matter who the quarterback is? What’s the key to their passing game? He’s getting all of that information with LaFleur.”
But again, Martz lauds the hire because if the offense breaks down and McVay has difficulty trying to fix it, he now has LaFleur to turn to.
“Perhaps, he’s bringing in a guy with some different ideas about how things can be addressed. LaFleur will be another set of eyes for McVay, and that’s healthy for him,” Martz wrote. “It will help revitalize him because there’s a lot of pressure when you’re the main guy putting it all in there week in and week out. It wears you down. I think that was the case with him to some extent. Even though their backgrounds are vastly different regarding offensive systems, their focus and how they approach the game are probably similar.”