Injuries had a major impact on the Rams lack of success early in 2024, their coach is looking to fix that
The Los Angeles Rams and their head coach Sean McVay are looking for more versatility out of the offense in 2025 after the team’s lack of success due to injuries early in the 2024 season. LA stumbled out of the gate to a 1-4 record to start off last year, largely in part to the loss of key players like wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, along with multiple offensive lineman.
Due to injuries, the Rams had little room for error in their pursuit of making the playoffs. The team was able to win nine out of their last 12 games, but they needed every one of those nine to win the tiebreaker vs the Seattle Seahawks for the division. Luckily, the team was able to turn their season around, however they may not be so lucky next time, and it’s something McVay is hoping to better prepare for this offseason.
According to the Rams website, McVay said:
“I think the biggest thing is there would be a little bit more versatility,” McVay said during his end-of-season video conference with reporters. “The easy answer is to complain about the injuries that we had that threw off the continuity and while that might be true, you can’t allow that to inhibit us the way that it did. That’s nobody’s responsibility but my own.”
The Rams scored 20 or fewer points in four of their first five games of the 2024 season after losing their top two receivers Puka Nacua (Week 1 knee injury) and Cooper Kupp (Week 2 ankle injury). The two were each sidelined for multiple games and were unable to take the field together again until Week 8 against the Vikings. On top of this, LA was on their fourth offensive line combination by the time they got their two star wideouts back.
The Rams offense finished the year as the 15th best in total offense, with a top-10 passing offense (10th). If Los Angeles was able to get off to a faster starter with better depth to fill in, it’s easy to assume that their unit as a whole would have been much more impressive statistically than middle of the pack.
McVay talked about potentially changing how the offense is taught during OTAs and training camp to be “more fully functional” while teaching the progressions for the “totality of the group” this spring and summer.
“How do you utilize the offseason and how are you making yourself more versatile from a personnel perspective or from a run variety perspective?” McVay said. “Those are the things that I’m excited to be able to dive into.”
The Rams are also taking inspiration from their former offensive coordinator Liam Coen and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who dealt with injuries at the running back and wide receiver positions this past season, but seemed to continually get better even with backups in major roles.
“One of the coolest things that I think is reflected about what a great job he did was you’ve got a background and then when you watch them evolve with (Buccaneers running back) Bucky Irving and the way they ran the football and some of the variety and personnel groupings, I thought that was a cool reflection of, maybe we think we’re going to do that, and then what you evolved into if you’re able to understand that the best coaches adjust to their players,” McVay said. “That’s what we’ve to do a good job of as it moves forward from what it looks like from our offensive line and from the surrounding parts with our backs.”
“I could go on and on about the variety of things that I’m excited about attacking to hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls that we had throughout the year to ultimately lead to more consistent production and play regardless of whatever our injury situation is.”
McVay is known for using mostly the same personnel grouping for most of his offense, but a change in thinking could lead to a more rotational-style offense for 2025. One criticism McVay got all season was the lack of involvement by third-round draft pick RB Blake Corum. Could this new direction involve him and Kyren Williams splitting carries based on different situations? This is just one of the many ways McVay could evolve his already potent offense.
The Rams face a huge offseason with their Super Bowl window as open as it’s been since their 2021 championship run. With some decent cap space available and a full slate of picks in the NFL Draft again, LA could go after some quality pieces to help achieve their new offensive goals. The future looks bright in Los Angeles right now, and if they are able to add some versatility and adaptability to their offense, they could be one of the best units in the NFL come 2025.
