von Daniel Kugler
From Super Bowl champion to disaster season. Hero to Zero. Or to put it another way: The season of the Los Angeles Rams.
After the franchise had secured the title at their home SoFi Stadium in February, the franchise has come down to earth less than a year later and missed the playoffs with a score of 5-12.
It therefore seems only logical that the Rams will put all the puzzle pieces of the roster and also the coaching team to the test after the end of the season. This also applies to the position of head coach Sean McVay, whose future, according to “ESPN” in Hollywood, is in the balance.
The coach of the reigning champion is said to need some time after the end of the season to decide whether he will return to the franchise in 2023 and has now fueled the rumor mill with a meaningful action himself.
While the 36-year-old is making decisions about his future, he is said not to stand in the way of any of his coaching staff looking for another opportunity and allow possible job interviews with other teams, like ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler reported.
Sean McVay: Time up as Rams head coach?
The coach apparently went so far as to tell his employees in a meeting that he didn’t know what he was going to do next year.
McVay has therefore pushed the final decision back and forth and needs time to process everything that has happened in the past year. And the consideration is obviously not limited to the work in progress in the field.
Winning the Super Bowl, working in television, getting married, watching his wife’s home country of Ukraine being attacked, losing his grandfather, and then coaching a team that, having achieved the greatest possible success, fell far short of expectations is.
Too much to make a quick decision.
2022 marks the first season since the Rams hired McVay as head coach in 2017, ending the franchise on a negative note. Also, no reigning Super Bowl champion in history has had fewer wins than the Rams this season with five.
With or without Sean McVay: Los Angeles Rams facing difficult offseason
The Super Bowl champion has been plagued by injuries throughout the season. According to the report, this also hit the coach hard. McVay now needs time to recharge his batteries and see if he can muster the energy to continue as a coach next season.
The Rams, meanwhile, with or without McVay, have some touchy decisions to make in the offseason. So the franchise is in the upcoming draft without its own first-round pick.
In addition, the team is just below the upper salary limit for the coming season, so major personnel changes will be difficult to implement. Additionally, offensive coordinator Liam Coen will return to his old job in the same capacity at the college in Kentucky, which he last held in 2021.
And McVay could now try his luck outside of the NFL in the long term.
Sean McVay: TV Expert Future?
McVay is expected to have several options for his future on the table: He could attract the interest of broadcasters – as he did last season in the form of streaming service Amazon – but many of those positions are already filled for next season.
McVay at least clarified ahead of the final game of the season that part of the Networks’ interest in him stems from the fact that he “didn’t run away from the decision to state that this is something I’m interested in.”
In Los Angeles, McVay signed a contract extension until the 2026 season just before the season, which, according to “Sportico”, should bring him $ 14 million per season.
Should McVay resign, however, he would remain signed to Los Angeles, as it is Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints who the franchise needs to clear up for talks with other teams.
According to the New York Post, Amazon also offered him a five-year, $100 million contract as a TV analyst after winning the title with the Rams.