McVay has revived quarterbacks, but never chosen one. That could change for the Rams in 2026.
The Los Angeles Rams may have quarterback Matthew Stafford locked up for a few more years, but that doesn’t mean that they also don’t have an eye on the future. That was proven when the Rams traded back in the NFL Draft with Atlanta Falcons and acquired a 2026 first round selection.
That selection gave the Rams some flexibility. They can continue to build around Stafford while collecting assets in what will be a better rookie quarterback class. It’s a class that could include Drew Allar, LaNorris Sellers, Grant Nussmeier, and potentially others.
It will be the first time that we see what type of quarterback head coach Sean McVay wants. While the Rams have had a lot of offensive success under McVay, he’s never been able to choose his quarterback. When he arrived in 2017, he inherited Jared Goff. McVay arguably chose Stafford. At the same time, it was also simply an opportunity to upgrade at the position for a player that could accelerate the Rams’ Super Bowl window.
Other coaches in the Sean McVay tree have been able to choose their own guys. Zac Taylor was able to choose Joe Burrow in 2020. Kyle Shanahan made the wrong choice, but was able to choose Trey Lance with the third overall pick. Kevin O’Connell chose JJ McCarthy last year while Matt LaFleur chose his guy in Jordan Love.
With that said, there are some relatively fair questions when it comes to McVay’s ability to develop a quarterback of his choosing. McVay played quarterback in high school at Marist, but has never coached the position. Assistant coaches on his staff that have gone on to head coaching positions such as LaFleur, Taylor, and O’Connell all had previous experience as quarterback coaches.
Even Kyle Shanahan who failed to an extent with Lance, but has helped elevate Brock Purdy, had one season as a quarterbacks coach in 2007 with the Houston Texans. McVay has only ever coached wide receivers and tight ends at the positional level.
That isn’t to say that McVay doesn’t understand the quarterback position. As an offensive minded head coach, he needs to understand and know what he needs from each position in the offense. The primary question here is whether or not McVay can be trusted to develop a young quarterback when the Rams inevitably draft one in 2026.
During the McVay era, the Rams have only drafted one quarterback with that player being Stetson Bennett. To say the least, whether for personal reasons or bad scouting, Bennett has been disappointing. Heading into year three, some would have expected Bennett to be embracing a role as the team’s full-time, long-term backup. Instead, the Rams brought back Jimmy Garoppolo and Bennett’s spot on the roster seems far from a guarantee.
Still, how Bennett has performed up to this point shouldn’t be the sole evidence of McVay not being able to develop a young quarterback. It’s also hard to use examples like John Wolford and Bryce Perkins who were both undrafted free agents and the hit-rate for undrafted quarterbacks is extremely small as is. With that said, it may be worth mentioning Wolford as he went 2-2 as the Rams starting quarterback, including a must-win game in 2020 to clinch a playoff spot. In that game, Wolford threw for 231 yards while rushing for an additional 45. He finished the week as QB19 in EPA per play. McVay seemed to squeeze everything that he could out of Wolford’s ability.
While McVay hasn’t drafted and developed his own quarterback, that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t done it. The quarterback that McVay inherited in 2017 in Jared Goff is a prime example of that development. When McVay took over in 2017, he looked en route to becoming a bust. Goff arguably had one of the worst rookie seasons ever. The first overall pick went 0-7 while throwing five touchdowns to seven interceptions. He completed just 54.6 percent of his passes.
Finding the positives in Goff’s rookie season were hard to come by. He was a quarterback at times that looked lost. He went 11-for-24 with two interceptions in a Week 16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. However, as Robert Mays, formerly of The Ringer, wrote,
“The Rams staff found that Goff was a quarterback with bad habits but not a broken psyche…In this case, scars would have amounted to mental blemishes rather than physical ones…In teaching Goff superior mechanics, the Rams staff made footwork the first and most crucial element. As a rookie, Goff displayed bad tendencies that were often exacerbated by his team’s subpar production.”
It’s been well-documented at this point, but McVay simplified things for Goff and played to his strengths. One of McVay’s best qualities as a head coach is that he typically puts players in the best position to succeed. McVay leaned into play action under center and presented easy throws for the young quarterback. In 2016, Goff used play-action on just 14.1 percent of his dropbacks as a rookie—the second-lowest rate in the NFL. That was 29.1 percent in 2017 and the highest-rate in the NFL.
When McVay arrived in Los Angeles, as Mike Silver wrote in The Why is Everything, Goff was mesmerized by McVay’s command of offensive principles and quarterback-centric mindset. McVay simplified things for Goff and made the system as simple and clear-cut as possible. The Rams offense also ran the fourth-most plays in no-huddle in 2017, also playing to Goff’s strengths.
McVay assisted another former number one overall pick rejuvenate his career in 2022 in Baker Mayfield. Mayfield started six games for the Carolina Panthers in 2022. During the first five weeks of the season before he suffered an ankle injury. In those five starts, Mayfield had a -0.235 EPA per play which ranked 32nd out of 32 quarterbacks. That was almost a full point less than Davis Mills at -0.153. Mayfield also ranked 32nd in success rate. In five starts to start the 2022 season, Mayfield completed just 54.9 percent of his passes, threw four touchdowns and four interceptions, and averaged 6.29 yards per attempt.
At this point, Mayfield had been cast aside by the Cleveland Browns and Panthers. When the Rams claimed Mayfield in December, they were the only team to do so. Mayfield played five games for the Rams. In those five games, Mayfield had a -0.04 EPA per play. If we’re doing the math, Mayfield was 83 percent better with the Rams than we was with the Panthers. Mayfield completed 63.6 percent of his passes with the Rams while throwing four touchdowns to two interceptions and averaged 6.59 yards per attempt.
It’s worth noting that the Rams ranked 25th in offense DVOA in 2022 to the Panthers’ 26th. They were two very similar offensive situations outside of the head coach and play-caller.
Mayfield’s most memorable moment with the Rams came in his first performance against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Rams had 40 hours to prepare Mayfield and as ESPN’s Sarah Bishop wrote, “He leaned on McVay, offensive coordinator Liam Coen, and quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Zac Robinson to learn the offense.”
Mayfield detailed this as well and how McVay helped him,
“Just how detailed he is. I mean, talking about, you know, even when a play looks good in practice, somehow fine tuning it afterwards to the ‘what if look.’ ‘What if we get this certain look, how do we want to teach the guy?’ I mean, it’s pretty special to watch how detailed he is and just getting to know him and how he wants to put guys in good positions, not to ask anybody to do something they’re not capable of and just making sure he’s putting guys in a great spot.”
While Mayfield has gone on to have more on-field success with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he looked to be on the trajectory of a career backup before the Rams claimed him off of waivers. Mayfield credits McVay and the Rams for helping him fall back in love with the game of football.
In the same way that McVay simplified things for Goff, he did the same with Mayfield. In Weeks 1-9, Stafford had a play-action rate of 24.5 percent. Mayfield threw out of play-action on 39.2 percent of his attempts.
It’s hard to question McVay’s role in turning around Goff and Mayfield when they were arguably at their lowest point. However for a young quarterback to have success it’s about creating an ecosystem. With Goff in 2017, McVay had Greg Olson who was an experienced quarterbacks coach. Kevin O’Connell helped with Stafford in 2021. O’Connell has since shown that he’s one of the better quarterback coaches in the NFL. Liam Coen played a large role in bringing Mayfield along in 2022.
McVay has typically done a great job building a successful coaching staff. He has to understand the position as the head coach, but his coaching staff is able to teach the nuances of the position. The Rams currently have an experienced quarterbacks coach in Dave Ragone. Whether or not he still holds that position next season when the Rams potentially draft a young quarterback is uncertain.
Through his first eight seasons, McVay may not be proven as a coach with a history of developing quarterbacks. Still, there are example of McVay taking quarterbacks who were cast aside and instilling confidence in them as a player.
When the Rams do bring in a young quarterback, it will be one of the more exciting moments of the McVay era. We simply don’t know what type of quarterback McVay wants. Does he want the mobile quarterback such as Lance, Wolford, or Jordan Love. Conversely, does he prefer the pocket passers like Goff, Stafford, Purdy, or JJ McCarthy.
Whoever the Rams bring in at quarterback in 2026 or 2027, it will be hard not to trust that McVay will surround them with an ecosystem and coaching staff to succeed.
