When it comes to accountability, nobody preaches it more than Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay.
McVay always holds himself to a high standard and often takes the blame for when his team struggles to produce the results he wants. However, the 2022 season was a different beast of a challenge as McVay had to navigate the worst season under his watch since coming to Los Angeles.
Through 17 weeks, the Rams have a 5-11 record which will lead to the worst regular season record in the McVay era. L.A. will miss the playoffs for just the second time with McVay at the helm but he had particularly choice words for his performance this season, via Cameron DaSilva of USA Today:
“I’d like to think that you use it as a growth experience. To say that I have learned a lot of things about myself, both good and bad, I think that would be fair to say,” McVay said Wednesday. “However you want to look at it, you realize how fortunate and blessed I’ve been to be in a situation where you’re surrounded by so many good people, and we’ve been able to stay relatively healthy and that’s led to us having fairly consistent results. This year has been, in my opinion from just what I can control, professional failure. That’s been humbling, it’s been challenging. I think it’s revealed some things that maybe I wouldn’t have known about myself that you have to be able to deal with and acknowledge accordingly, but if you do it the right way, I do believe you can be stronger.”
It’s hard to blame McVay too much for how poorly the year went considering how many injuries the roster sustained, though it speaks to how much he wants to win despite adverse circumstances. Any head coach would struggle to win games without their starting quarterback, star receiver and arguably the best defender in NFL history but McVay is not one to make excuses.
As far as reflecting on the year, McVay would probably be served best by focusing on what the team was able to accomplish down the stretch despite being without so many key players. The offseason will be another discovery period for him and the coaching staff, but as fans have seen in the past the organization is able to rebound from down years and find success.
The 2023 season should be a better one, but until then, McVay will just need to live with the outcome of this year.
