Mike Shanahan’s youth-laden coaching staff from his time in Washington is invading the NFC West.
Rams head coach Sean McVay is expected to tap Falcons quarterback coach Matt LaFleur as his offensive coordinator, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Tuesday. In Atlanta LaFleur worked under Kyle Shanahan, who was named head coach of the 49ers on Monday. LaFleur, McVay and Shanahan all coached together in Washington from 2010-13:
Mike Shanahan's youth-laden coaching staff from his time in Washington is taking over the NFC West. #Rams #49ers pic.twitter.com/8ksn6xB2DY
— Chris Hayre (@chrishayre) February 7, 2017
Historic offense in ATL
LaFleur, 37, spent the last two seasons coaching NFL MVP Matt Ryan. Under LaFleur, Ryan threw for a career-high 4,944 yards and 38 TDs (69.9 completion percentage) in 2016, leading the Falcons to Super Bowl LI. Atlanta finished with the league’s second-ranked offense and scored 540 points, tied for seventh all-time in a single season.
Prior to Ryan, LaFleur worked with several quarterbacks in Washington, including Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins. He left the Redskins to join Notre Dame as its quarterbacks coach in 2014. Pro Football Focus tracked the grades of his quarterbacks below:
New Rams OC Matt Lafleur has been a QB coach since 2010. What does this mean for Jared Goff?
QB grades under Lafleur's tutelage: pic.twitter.com/7MGQNFWuQo
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) February 7, 2017
LaFleur, along with McVay and quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, is tasked with developing Jared Goff. Goff finished the 2016 season with an 0-7 record, throwing for 1,089 yards, 5 TDs and 7 INTs (54.5 completion percentage).
McVay indicated in his introductory press conference that he will call the plays in 2017, however it’s clear LaFleur will have a large role in ensuring the Rams offense scores more than 14 points per game, the lowest in the NFL last season. For context, the Falcons (33.8 ppg) scored 19.8 more points than the Rams on a per game basis in 2016. That’s nearly three touchdowns.
Stats and information courtesy of Pro Football Reference and NFL.com.
