Colt McCoy explains what separates Sean McVay as an offensive mind in the NFL

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy has a long-standing respect for L.A. Rams head coach Sean McVay from their time together with Washington.

McCoy believes McVay tops other offensive-minded coaches, particularly when it comes to seeing the game in real-time from the sidelines and tricking defenses.

“The guys in his ear and who he learned from set the stage for him but he took it to another level,” McCoy said on Green Light with Chris Long. “Some of the best games I’ve played are games he’s called. He’ll call plays from the sideline and without even looking at the iPad, or the tablet, he’ll spit out every coverage, every front, what did I see, why didn’t I throw it here, and he’s seeing it all from the sidelines.

“I’ve been a backup for several years and it’s so hard to see things from the sidelines, it’s impossible. The way he was trained and brought up, he’s super smart. He understands everything about the defense. Everything in his system looks the same to the defense, right, and then you don’t know what to do. He literally toys with defensive ends.”

McVay was the quarterbacks coach, then offensive coordinator, for Washington during McCoy’s stint with the team.

He has a 61.2% win percentage in the NFL since taking over the Rams in 2017. He was the youngest head coach in the league when he took the L.A. job and he was the youngest to win a Super Bowl at 36.

McVay ‘refreshed’ following OTAs, minicamp

One year after winning the Super Bowl, Los Angeles struggled, posting the worst record of McVay’s tenure yet at 5-12.

The Rams picked up 14 newcomers via the 2023 NFL Draft. All those young players in the facilities have the 37-year-old coach feeling refreshed.

“It’s very different and refreshing,” McVay said. “I think in a lot of instances those are things that when you just reflect back, you take for granted. This is the closest thing since 2018 in terms of actually doing some real team work.”

During OTAs and minicamp, the Rams staff took the team back to the basics to get everyone on the same page. They now have until the end of July to rest up for training camp.

“We were able to really reestablish, how do we want to operate?” McVay said. “What are the ways that we’re teaching these things to make it as digestible as possible for the players? How can you get a little bit ahead of it?”