Someone From the Sean McVay Coaching Tree Is Going to Win a Super Bowl

The NFL is obsessed with “coaching trees.” There’s this longstanding belief, or tradition, or whatever you want to call it, that coaches that got to work under other successful coaches would then be successful coaches of their own. It’s basically the NFL’s version of nepotism, without the family ties. 

For the longest time, it was about the Andy Reid and Bill Belichick family — err, coaching — trees. After all, Belichick led the Patriots dynasty to six Super Bowl championships over two decades. Any hint into the mind that led to such success will naturally garner attention. For Reid, he is often regarded as one of the most innovative offensive minds in football. Any team looking for a spark on that side of the ball would give assistants that worked under him a look, like Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy. 

Sean McVay Is Gaining Popularity for His Own Coaching Tree

Despite the fact that Sean McVay is only 36-years-old, his reputation around the league as a winner and as a creative offensive mind has already reached feverish heights. Over the last few years, multiple of his assistants have gone on to be hired for head coaching roles, including Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers, Brandon Staley of the Los Angeles Chargers, and Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals.

McVay and Taylor will face each other for the Super Bowl, and with Taylor currently 38 years old, he and McVay are now the youngest duo of head coaches to coach against each other in the Super Bowl. 

The Rams Are Opening as Favorites in Super Bowl 56

Despite this game being played in Los Angeles, in the Rams home stadium, the Rams are technically the away team for the Super Bowl. The AFC and NFC representatives for the Super Bowl alternate who is considered the home team each year, and this year that honor falls to the AFC. 

There technically could be a weird situation where the Bengals have the Rams home locker room in SoFi stadium for this game, meaning the Rams would have to use either a visiting team locker or the home locker room for the Los Angeles Chargers. None of this has been determined yet, but it’s a small detail worth paying attention to.

As it stands, the Rams are currently -4.0 (-110) via WynnBET, with the O/U set at 49. There will be plenty of time to dig into the betting trends and the two teams in particular, but with every game over the last two rounds of the playoffs being decided by a field goal or less, -4.0 might be high.  

You can find all of Jon Helmkamp’s picks here.