Under head coach Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams have been one of the most creative and explosive offenses in the NFL.
Although McVay prefers to use 11 personnel almost exclusively, he and the coaching staff have found ways to tweak those groupings and confuse opposing defenses. During the 2022 season, Los Angeles has featured wide receiver Ben Skowronek as a fullback, generating positive yardage plays in the process.
McVay discussed Skowronek’s new role and how they’re going to continue looking for ways to utilize the roster.
“I think it’s kind of something that is always one of the things that we try to work through as coaches every single week. What’s the best way to take advantage of our players and different things that we can present based on their skill sets? Last year, it was what we felt like what we needed at that time. I’m sure that this won’t be the only thing that ends up being a little different way of trying to accentuate our player skill sets, whether that be personnel groupings or using certain players to create the illusion of that personnel grouping even though you might be in what is typically an 11-personnel type of look.
“So like I said, it kind of goes back to collaboration, but it takes the players to be able to fit and you certainly can’t do that unless you have somebody like a Ben Skowronek that has the toughness, the physicality, the overall football IQ and intelligence to be able to play a bunch of different spots because he’s playing receiver, he’s playing fullback in a lot of those two-back looks. There’s certain plays that we ask him to do, certain some of the roles that are similar to a tight end. It takes the player number one, and then creative coaches that have an open mind of different ways to be able to utilize guys. That’s a real credit to our offensive coaching staff.”
Skowronek was first featured at fullback in Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, and he saw more snaps at that position in Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals.
McVay and his staff have unearthed a successful wrinkle of their offense and it will be interesting to see what else they have up their sleeve in Week 4 when they take on the San Francisco 49ers.
