Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams suffered a sizable loss on Sunday when offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as the team’s next head coach. The move seemed likely over the past few weeks, but now that it’s official, McVay will need to find a new offensive coordinator — his fifth since 2017.
Luckily for him, he didn’t have to look far (or long) to find LaFleur’s replacement. His first choice was a pretty obvious choice: Nate Scheelhaase.
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The Rams’ 35-year-old passing game coordinator interviewed for multiple head coaching jobs this offseason despite never serving as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. At one point, he even looked like the front-runner for the position with the Cleveland Browns before they hired Todd Monken.
Before Scherhasz interviewed as a head coach this year, he met with the Buccaneers and Jaguars for their offensive coordinator vacancies. After being waived, the Rams promoted Scheerhas to passing game coordinator in his second season with the team.
It’s time for him to be promoted again.
This was the most logical choice for McVay. Scherhas is familiar with the offense and McVay’s system, having worked in it for the past two years. He’s already looking for a head coaching job, so it’s clear teams around the league are already paying attention; it’s only a matter of time before the Rams lose him.
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Given his current position as passing game coordinator, the Rams can’t stop Scheerhaas from interviewing for the offensive coordinator position. If LaFleur wants to poach Shelhaas from Los Angeles to a new staff in Arizona, there’s nothing the Rams can do to prevent that from happening — unless McVay promotes him to OC.
It’s also a necessary next step for the 35-year-old assistant. He seems destined to be a head coach at some point, but his lack of coordinator experience could hurt his chances this recruiting cycle. One year into McVay’s tenure as head coach, it’s almost guaranteed that he’ll get a head coaching job in the near future.
McVay is no stranger to looking outside the Rams building for coordinator candidates, but in this case, he should stay in-house and work with one of the hottest young coaches in the sport.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams first choice for offensive coordinator should be Nate Scheelhaase
