by Paul Teetor
Say it ain’t so, Sean.
Rams fans got the climax to a year-long atmospheric river of bad news late this week when Head Coach Sean McVay confirmed he may leave the team after this season.
Less than 12 months after the city-wide euphoria of the Rams Super Bowl win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Rams have lost their three best players – Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford – to season-ending injuries, have failed to make the playoffs, and now may very well be losing the best coach they have ever had.
Before you panic, McVay did not say that he is indeed leaving. But he confirmed reports that he is going to take some time – maybe several days, maybe several weeks, but probably not several months – to decompress from a crazy year, and figure out what he wants to do next.
It could be coming back to the Rams, it could be taking a TV analyst job, or it could be taking a year off – which he richly deserves after the wild year he’s been through.
It started 11 months ago, when McVay guided the Rams to a Super Bowl win that electrified the city and satisfied the long held desire of Rams owner Stan Kroenke for his team to win the big one at his very own $5.5 billion football palace, known as SoFi Stadium.
Shortly after that football fairytale played out in real life, McVay almost took an analyst’s job with a major TV network. But his players – including Kupp, Stafford and Donald – all lobbied for him to return, and began the “run it back” meme that circulated on social media.
When the three star players and McVay – plus General Manager Les Snead – were all rewarded by Kroenke with big, fat raises and contract extensions, McVay couldn’t very well say thanks but no thanks to coming back.
As if to demonstrate that no good deed goes unpunished, that was the start of his no-good, horrible, very bad year.
First he got married to his long-time fiancée Veronika Khomyn, a former model from Ukraine. That was a good thing and a joyous occasion.
But then he watched helplessly a month later as his new wife’s homeland was invaded by a Russian madman named Vladimir Putin. Her friends and family were all put in harm’s way, as were almost all Ukrainians. The stress on his wife was enormous, and there was little he could do to mitigate it. That brutal war, as you may have heard, is still grinding away.
His year got worse when his beloved grandfather, San Francisco 49er’s Godfather John McVay, passed away, a huge loss for a genius of a coach who modeled his career after his grandfather’s career. John McVay, along with legendary 49ers coach Bill Walsh, was the architect of the 49er dynasty of the 1980-90s.
Then his team stumbled out of the gate to a 3-3 record, setting off alarm bells throughout LA. The bottom fell out when they lost their next six games and were eliminated from playoff contention. During that six-game losing streak Stafford, Donald and Kupp all suffered serious injuries that may take most of the off-season to heal.
Stafford in particular had such a serious elbow injury – more from overuse during his 14-year career than any one particular hit this season – that there are doubts about just how good he will be or can be next season.
It’s possible – but not probable – that he is no longer a starting-quality NFL quarterback simply because he is unable to withstand the physical toll of a 17-game NFL regular season, plus whatever playoff games the Rams may or may not play next season.
McVay got a little piece of good news a month ago when the Rams picked up quarterback Baker Mayfield off the waiver wire. After just one day of practice the former number one overall pick orchestrated a miracle comeback with a 98-yard touchdown drive, and a one-point victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in his very first game in a Rams uniform.
McVay, the quarterback whisperer, seemed like the ideal coach to revive Mayfield’s once-promising career trajectory. But since that first game Mayfield has been up-and-down as the Rams starting quarterback, and it’s clear now why he’s already on his third team after just five years in the NFL.
He’s short in a league of tall gunslingers, like Justin Herbert, and Josh Allen, so a high percentage of his passes get batted down at the line of scrimmage.
Second, although he’s willing to pull the ball down, and run when he has to, he’s not a physical presence, lacks elite quickness, is not shifty in the way that another short quarterback, Patrick Mahomes is, and can be easily taken down.
Worst of all, while he can occasionally look like a big-time talent when he drops back and throws medium range or even deep downfield, too often his passes are a bit too high, a bit too low, or slightly behind his receivers.
Granted, he has not had a chance to work with Kupp, the best receiver in the league, and that opportunity next season would definitely improve his statistics.
But all his flaws are fixable if he ever gets a chance to work with a coach as talented as McVay is, especially in working with quarterbacks, since McVay was an undersized but super-smart quarterback in high school and college.
Both the good and bad parts of Mayfield’s game were on full display Sunday afternoon in the Rams’ season-ending 19-16 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Mayfield connected on only 13 of 26 passes for 147 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. It was an underwhelming performance for a guy some think could be the Rams starter next year.
As McVay paced the sideline alternately cheering Mayfield on and grimacing at some of his miscues, it was hard not to think about how McVay could eliminate his bad habits and mold him into a consistently winning quarterback if he had a full pre-season to work with him.
The loss dropped the Rams record to 5-12 — the first time since the Rams hired McVay in 2017 that he has posted a losing record.
The defending Super Bowl champions have been ravaged by injuries on both sides of the ball, and it has taken a severe toll on McVay’s relentless optimism. It’s clear just from watching him on the sideline and in his interactions with the media that McVay needs time to recharge and determine whether he has the energy to continue coaching next season.
He’ll turn 37 on January 24, which seems like a ridiculously early age for a coach to be burned out. But remember, he was the youngest head coach in NFL history when the Rams hired him six years ago.
After the game, he was deliberately vague when asked about the rumors that he is leaving.
“I’m right here, right now, and we’ll deal with that stuff at a later time,” he said.
Does he have a deadline to make a decision?
“I don’t,” he said. “I don’t right now.”
Gulp.
Prediction: McVay will take at least one year off while the Rams start a painful and protracted rebuild. After that, well, we can only hope and pray that he’ll come back refreshed and ready to work his coaching magic once again.
Say it ain’t so, Sean.
Bye bye Bauer
Hooray for the Dodgers. They finally did something smart Friday night and told Trevor Bauer to hit the road.
But getting rid of the Dodger Dog wasn’t only the smart thing to do.
It was the right thing to do.
Making it particularly admirable: they had to hand him $22 million to make the journey to another team a little smoother.
And have no doubt: he will get picked up by another team, probably very soon – especially since they will only have to pay him the MLB minimum of $700,000 while the Dodgers are stuck paying the $22 million they still owe him for this season.
Bauer, as we all know, has been accused of horrendous, lurid, repulsive, violent sexual acts against a San Diego woman he “met” online. But he and his lawyers used her own texts and emails to undercut her credibility by arguing that the sexual violence was consensual, something she wanted and begged for even after their first IRL “date” following an online hookup.
With staff ace Walker Buehler likely to miss all of the 2023 season due to an arm injury and subsequent surgery, and with former staff ace Clayton Kershaw turning 35 in March, the Dodgers sorely need another quality starter or three.
Remember, Bauer is a former Cy Young Award winner, so he certainly qualifies as a quality starter. And since Bauer was never charged with a crime despite being suspended for 194 games by MLB, the Dodgers had every legal right to bring Bauer back and put him in the rotation. Indeed, he said he expected to be pitching for the Dodgers this season.
After his reinstatement by MLB two weeks ago, the Dodgers had two weeks to make a decision whether to keep him or cut all ties with him. A certain percentage of Dodgers fans – less than half, certainly – felt the practical need for another top end starter trumped any moral problems associated with bringing him back to a franchise that prides itself on being family friendly.
But in the end, however reluctantly, they did the right thing and the smart thing at the same time.
It’s the first smart move they’ve made in a winter of Dodgers discontent that saw familiar names like Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger and Trae Turner all leave LA for greener pastures simply because the Dodgers wouldn’t meet their price while the other teams would.
President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman hasn’t said it, but it’s clear that one of the reasons the Dodgers have tightened their purse strings this off-season is the crazy 3-year, $102 million contract they gave Bauer two years ago despite all the red flags surrounding his personality and off-the-field behavior as opposed to his pitching ability.
So while they finally, formally got rid of Bauer this week, they’ll still be paying for their huge mistake in signing him to that contract long into the future.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
Follow: @paulteetor
