Sean McVay gave some insight on what Rams defense might look like under Chris Shula

For the first time in three years, the Los Angeles Rams will have a new defensive coordinator. With Raheem Morris leaving to become the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, the Rams needed a new play-caller on the defensive side of the ball. Following a thorough process, head coach Sean McVay landed on an internal hire in Chris Shula.

Much like the Brandon Staley hire, Shula brings some uncertainty. However, even in Staley’s case it was pretty clear what the plan was and the type of defense that the Rams were going to run as he had a background under Vic Fangio. With Shula, not only has he never been a coordinator, but he’s worked under several different coaches in Wade Phillips, Staley, and Morris. That leaves some questions as to what the Rams defense will look like under Shula.

On Wednesday, McVay answered those questions by saying,

“What it starts with is, alright, what’s the foundational philosophy? It always starts with the players. When Brandon Staley was our coordinator, there were a lot of things that we were excited about with that specific system, some of the visions that he brought. And then Raheem kept a lot of the foundational philosophies but put his own spin on it. And really, when you look at the three years, there were some different identities, but it was all predicated on our personnel. Chris will do the same. Got a lot of young guys that we feel really good about and then we were able to add some veteran players on the back end, a lot of guys that played football last year that will use that experience as a positive. But we’re working through it. We’re figuring that out right now. And it’s always about the players, but there’ll be some things that you’ll see that might feel similar and then there’ll be some things that are different. I think if you stay the same, this league is too difficult and you end up becoming easy to attack. I’ve been really pleased with the job that Chris has done with his group so far.”

There are some other things worth noting when it comes to what McVay had to say. The first is that while the Rams have had these different coordinators, McVay has a large say in the type of defense being played. It’s widely known at this point that Morris had to essentially learn Staley’s scheme on the fly in 2021 rather than implement his scheme. However, he was able to add some of his own twists to it. The same will be the case with Shula, but to a far lesser extent. Unlike Morris, Shula won’t have to learn the scheme as he has coached it for the past four seasons.

This is mostly what was expected with a Shula hire. As I stated back in February when the Rams made the hire,

“From a philosophical standpoint, it’s unlikely that a lot will change from recent years. In 2020, McVay hired Staley to come in and install the Vic Fangio system. When Staley left, Morris took over and helped move the system forward, adding his own twists as he learned it on the fly. In all likelihood, the general system and ideologies will remain the same. Much like Morris did, Shula will simply look to move the system forward and add his own twists.”

As for the twists that are added will largely depend on the players. Ever since McVay has joined the Rams, the goal has been to build a system around the players that they can feel comfortable and succeed in. Many coaches will look to force a player into a system and that can have some mixed results. While McVay has his system, he puts players in a position to succeed. Given that Shula has been McVay’s right-hand man ever since he was hired by the Rams in 2017, that same philosophy can be expected.

This lines up almost exactly with what Shula had to say in his introductory press conference back in February. The theme of that press conference when it came to what the defenses identity was going to be was that it was about the players. Said Shula,

“My defensive philosophy is it’s about the players...We’re going to do whatever the players can execute at a high level where they can go out and play fast and play confident.”

Shula is going to have his underlying scheme that’s built on ever since Staley first installed it in 2020. However, Shula will look at the players that the Rams have such as Kam Curl, Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske, Ernest Jones, and Jared Verse and put them in the best positions to succeed. With a young defense, things will likely be kept simple so that the players can play fast.

We won’t know exactly what that looks like until the Rams defense takes the field in Week 1. However, from a generic standpoint, it won’t look too much different than what the defense has been in the past. There will be some different twists that Shula implements that he can call his own, but the scheme will generally remain the same.