Analysis: Why the Steelers and others are wise to poke around the Sean McVay coaching tree

PITTSBURGH — The reason for league-wide interest in assistants from the Los Angeles Rams is fairly evident.

Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor, Minnesota coach Kevin O'Connell and Jacksonville coach Liam Coen all either jumped directly from Sean McVay's staff to their current jobs, or got their NFL start with the Rams. That's one AFC championship winner, one NFL coach of the year, and Coen, well — Duval, he's the one.

But what about the "how" versus the "why" as to McVay's Rams serving as an NFL sideline incubator? Perhaps, to borrow a Mike Tomlin favorite, there's nothing mystical about it.

On a basic level, McVay is widely considered one of the brightest minds in the league, so his philosophies, schemes and communication skills trickle down to his staff. They meet together, strategize together and live together each summer for the first two weeks or so of training camp at a local college campus (sound familiar?).

Beyond that, though, McVay is intentional about hand-picking and then developing his assistants. While he calls the offensive plays, he has a system for getting his coaches a look through that lens when he can.

Coen came recommended from the University of Maine, but by the end of his time with the Rams, he had the offensive coordinator title, if not the full gamut of game-day responsibilities. So, in the preseason, McVay had Coen calling plays in-game while the head coach did an interview with the local broadcast. Defensively, a couple of assistants under then-coordinator Raheem Morris — including current coordinator Chris Shula — split the play-calling that night, too.

Shula now is one of the Steelers' preliminary candidates in their coaching search to replace Tomlin, as is Nate Scheelhaase, McVay's passing game coordinator. Much like Coen before him, Scheelhaase got the chance to call plays in a preseason game this year.

"It's just a cool opportunity to be able to just continue to expose these great coaches to some different opportunities," McVay said in August.

McVay also has given assistant head coach Aubrey Pleasant the chance to be the acting head coach for preseason games, relegating himself to the booth instead of the sideline. Mike Vrabel may have started that trend when he was with Tennessee in 2023.

For the Rams, at least, the logic is that they do their best to develop players, so why wouldn't they do the same with coaches? One school of thought might be that assistants moving on to bigger jobs only hurts the franchise from a continuity standpoint, but it can't hurt to be an attractive workplace for prospective coaches.

In the case of Scheelhaase, McVay watched the Iowa State offense in 2023 and liked what he saw. He recruited Scheelhaase to leave his coordinator and play-calling post in college to become an offensive assistant in the NFL.

The "passing game specialist" and subsequent "passing game coordinator" titles for Scheelhaase don't hurt, either. He primarily works with the Rams' receivers, but McVay also has given him the specific duty of drawing plays through a sophisticated software program — a role that was held by Coen, Taylor and others before Scheelhaase.

Last year's Super Bowl-winning coach, Nick Sirianni, was rooted in the Andy Reid garden. Kyle Shanahan, who also has represented the NFC in the big game over the past four seasons, mentored McVay for four seasons in Washington, and his coaching tree is vast in its own right.

But the McVay Effect is all the rage these days. The last coaches standing in this postseason are Vrabel, Sean Payton, Mike Macdonald and McVay himself. That's a former player who was molded by Bill Belichick, a longtime head coach who also has shown an eye for assistants on the rise, and a disciple of John Harbaugh.

When it comes to the Steelers' initial targets, Carolina defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is another assistant who goes way back with McVay and served on his Rams staff from 2017-21. That stint set him up for his first coordinator job in 2022.

Four of the NFL's 10 openings have been filled, with San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh agreeing with Tennessee overnight, per multiple reports. That's a trusted member of Shanahan's inner circle, with no McVay flavor yet in this hiring cycle.

Another of the Steelers' interview requests has gone to San Francisco offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, currently working his way through Shanahan University. He could graduate soon, and possibly even matriculate to Pittsburgh. Brian Flores made his name as a Belichick lieutenant. Jesse Minter is a Harbaugh descendant.

But those are relative one-offs in the Steelers' first search of its kind since 2007. McVay's guys, though, have the numbers. His holistic approach lends itself to a deep pool of talent to tap into for filling out a new staff. For any defensive assistant under McVay who gets a head job, he should have no shortage of connections to find a dynamic mind to run his offense.

That's all a glimpse into the collaborative nature of the Rams' coaching operation that seems to lend itself to launching McVay understudies into the stratosphere. If it didn't revolve around a head coach who reached a Super Bowl at age 33 and won one at 36, then it'd be just another collection of interwoven football friends who try to help each other climb the ranks of their profession.

"It's a successful system, no two ways about it," Steelers president Art Rooney II said two years ago, when asked about interviewing offensive coordinator candidates who worked under McVay or Shanahan. "Those guys have had a lot of success and their approach to offensive football has been pretty impressive. I'm not gonna say we're only gonna talk to people that come off of that tree, but it's certainly worth talking to those guys."