McVay OCs have consistent success

The Jaguars and Texans have now tapped into the Sean McVay coaching pipeline

A new analysis of which coaching trees have had the most success on offense recently has shown that offensive coordinators who previously worked for Sean McVay have consistently made their new teams better. While none of McVay’s disciples have done nearly as well as McVay himself has done since taking over for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017, they’ve all improved their new team’s success rate, most by a significant margin.

A study by Tyler Greenwalt of TheAnalyst.com shows that McVay improved L.A.’s success rate by a whopping 9.5%, while Liam Coen improved the Buccaneers’ by 4.9% in 2024. Coen was rewarded with the head coaching position of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2025 for his efforts.

This chart shows McVay and Kyle Shanahan OC disciples:

As you can see, all of them had a positive impact with their new teams. Even those with less dramatic improvements, like Matt LaFleur and Kevin O’Connell, have had a different (and more important) type of success:

WINS.

Since taking over for Mike Zimmer in 2022, O’Connell has led the Vikings to a 34-17 record in three seasons. Minnesota has had a top-10 scoring offense in two of those campaigns.

Since LaFleur replaced Mike McCarthy in 2019, the Packers have won three division titles and have a 67-33 record.

Zac Taylor went 2-14 in his first season with the Bengals, and 4-11-1 in his second, but has since posted four consecutive winning records, reached the Super Bowl, and has a combined record of 40-27 in the past four years.

In Zac Robinson’s first year as the Falcons offensive coordinator, Atlanta improved from 27th in points per drive to 14th in points per drive.

Now the attention turns to Nick Caley.

L.A.’s tight ends coach for the past two years and McVay’s pass game coordinator last season, Caley was hired to be the new offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans in 2025. Caley could soon be the next McVay disciple to improve a team’s offense immediately. And he has the quarterback and the weapons to do it.

Caley’s first test?

The Texans face the Rams in Week 1.

Why McVay coaches have more success

Yes, Sean McVay is as good mentor and a great offensive coordinator. But we can’t ignore the fact that he’s also attracting the best up-and-coming coaching talent on offense. He hired many of those coaches when they were already on the rise, such as LaFleur and Caley, and they probably would have continued to get promoted around the NFL with or without his help.

No coach listed here has had more personal success than McVay himself, but as long as he can keep poaching the best assistants around the league and use them for the Rams’ benefit, everybody wins.