The Los Angeles Rams are well-positioned to do the unthinkable and repeat as Super Bowl champions, though their staff is once again going to have new faces on it.
Perhaps the biggest change is at offensive coordinator as Kevin O’Connell left the organization for an opportunity to serve as the Minnesota Vikings’ new head coach. O’Connell was a key figure on the offensive side, but head coach Sean McVay was able to quickly find his replacement in Liam Coen.
Coen and O’Connell actually spent a season working together in Los Angeles back in 2020 and O’Connell had nothing but praise for Coen, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com
“Liam was great,” O’Connell said Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “From very early on in the process, you could see that he wanted to grow, he had the capability, high capacity guy, really smart. But then you see him connect with the players. We worked side-by-side in 2020, and seeing not only his connection with the other quarterbacks, in addition to Jared (Goff), but our whole roster and just offense, defense – it’s when guys have that type of capacity, a lot of different players search those guys out, and you could see his connection with our team here. I knew he would do great things to Kentucky, which he did. It wasn’t a surprise to me.”
Coen spent three seasons with the Rams as the assistant wide receivers coach before transitioning to quarterbacks coach in 2020. Like O’Connell, Coen has a knack for offense and that will surely help McVay during the 2022 season.
Almost everything about Coen sounds in line with what McVay looks for in staff members, and he should hit the ground running given his familiarity with the team. No matter what, the Rams offense should once again be one of the league’s most explosive units.
