Los Angeles Rams expected to name Matt LaFleur offensive coordinator

With the coaching staff of the Atlanta Falcons shifting and changing post-Super Bowl, the Los Angeles Rams have now secured a new offensive coordinator.

The Atlanta Falcons run to Super Bowl 51, and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan having to wait to take over as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has brought some late shifting around of NFL assistant coaches. Some Falcons’ assistants will follow Shanahan to San Francisco, but others are left to seek other opportunities from a limited pool of available spots.

The Los Angeles Rams went outside the box to hire Sean McVay as their new head coach, and he’ll be the youngest head coach in NFL history (31 years old). The offensive coordinator post with the Rams has remained open though, perhaps with an eye on a certain candidate once he became available.

That specific candidate appears to have been Falcons’ quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur, who is now expected to become the Rams’ new offensive coordinator.

LaFleur spent the last two seasons as Atlanta’s quarterbacks coach, and he had the same job at Notre Dame during the 2014 season. But LaFleur also served as quarterbacks coach for the Washington Redskins from 2010-2013, on the same coaching staff as McVay.

LaFleur’s early coaching experience came at the college level, but outside of his one year at Notre Dame he has been an NFL assistant coach since 2008. At 37 years old LaFleur is a younger coach like McVay, and that may help him work well with 2016 No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff going forward.

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McVay is likely to call the offensive plays for the Rams, so any credit LaFleur may be due may fall by the wayside or be dismissed while that’s the case But a step up the coaching ladder is an opportunity that can’t be turned down, and if the Rams’ offense produces while Goff develops into a good quarterback LaFleur will have a head coaching job in his future.